by Leia Stone
The other shifter had run up now and was about to pounce on Nadine and help out his buddy. My eyes bugged as I saw that he was a freaking mountain lion! Oh hell no. That wasn’t a fair fight. I had seen enough to know Nadine was a badass, but two against one wasn’t right, and I would never leave a friend behind, no matter what the odds were. I wasn’t a “run home” kind of girl. I scanned the ground and leaned down and picked up a heavy sharp rock. Pulling my hand back to rest on my shoulder, I pushed and chucked the rock like a shot-put. The mountain lion was coming full speed at Nadine and the rock connected directly with his head, knocking him to the ground before he could get to her. A crimson burst of blood sprouted from just above his eye bone. Yes! I gave myself an inward cheer. I might not be a runner or know kickboxing, but I would break a beer bottle over your head no problem. I was scrappy, something that came with years of living in rough neighborhoods. My joy was short-lived, as the lion quickly stood. Blood gushing down his muzzle, he glared at me with yellow eyes.
Oh crap. Nadine was in full wolf form now, snapping at the other wolf on top of her like a rabid dog. Something weird was happening to my body. I was pretty sure it was a major panic attack, but I couldn’t be certain. A low buzz was rattling my chest and I panicked that I might shift into my dragon right here. That would show these two assholes what I was, and also bring the hunters to us. Be calm. Be calm. You’re safe, I told myself, to no avail. I wasn’t safe. I was two seconds from being beheaded by a mountain lion. Suddenly the lion roared and darted towards me, and the low buzzing became an electric crackle. I felt like I was made of electricity. Power was zipping up and down my limbs, looking for an outlet as I clenched my teeth, trying to hold in whatever this was.
The lion was close now; I was a dead woman if I didn’t do something. My dragon knew it too. As the shifter leapt for me, I raised my hands to protect my face and shouted, pushing all of that electric energy out of me. The moment my hands went up, a purple bolt of magic shot out, striking the lion in the face and dropping him like a sack of bricks. At the same time, I heard a gunshot, and Gear burst from the trees taking shots at the wolf that was trying to tear into Nadine.
I looked down at my hands, which still held their fading, purplish glow, and then my eyes fell to the mountain lion at my feet. He looked dead. I stumbled backward and spun around when I saw Logan standing there staring at me with green, slitted eyes.
I still had my hands held out stupidly and they were shaking. “I … umm.”
Logan snapped out of his trance and took two steps past me, kneeling down to feel the lion’s pulse. “He’s alive,” he said in a voice that made me think he wished he were dead.
I spun around and saw that Gear had shot the wolf on top of Nadine and she had crawled out and was shifting to human form.
The wolf was moaning but otherwise looked to be okay.
Once human, Nadine spat in his face. “They tried to attack us to do gods know what. I say we burn them alive.”
Even now, at the end of Gear’s gun, the idiot wolf was eyeing Nadine’s body with lust. Gear growled and the wolf looked from Nadine to Gear and lowered his eyes. Logan was shaking with uncontrolled rage. He stood two steps towards the bleeding wolf and leaned down low, getting one inch from the wolf’s bloody teeth. Holy hell, he could bite Logan’s face off if he wanted to. “These women are mine.” Logan growled and it was barely audible underneath the husky anger there. The wolf stared in Logan’s eyes as if trying to assess his dominance, but after a few seconds he lowered his eyes to Logan’s chin.
“I will honor pack politics this one time. But next time you step foot on our land or so much as sniff our women … you’re dead,” Logan breathed, and the wolf just stared at his chin.
I hadn’t noticed it before, but the lion shifter I had knocked out was in human form now. He must have shifted while Logan was talking to his friend. “What the hell is she?” he said from his crouched position on the ground and pointed to me, staring at me like I had sprouted two heads. It was Blondie.
Gear popped off a shot and it sank into the man’s shoulder, sending him into screaming agony. “Don’t look at her,” Gear growled, and I flinched at the gun’s loud report.
Logan stood, towering over both of them. “This is our territory. Go back to yours and stay there!”
Blondie glared at Logan, but finally stood and started to walk away, back into the forest the way he came, holding the bleeding wound in his shoulder. The injured wolf that Nadine had fought limped after him, bringing a trail of blood with him. They were gone and I let out the breath I had been holding. Gear pulled off his shirt and handed it to Nadine, who tossed it over her naked body as she whispered her thanks.
Gear looked at Logan. “Did you see it?”
Logan nodded.
Gear raised an eyebrow and I noticed that even in all the scuffle his green Mohawk stood tall and uncrumpled. “It was … purple.”
My nerves tightened to knots in my stomach. They were talking about me, about what I did. Whatever it was...
“What does it mean?” Nadine asked, and I continued to stand there stupidly, wondering what was wrong with me.
Logan sighed, scratching the back of his neck. “I don’t know. But I don’t like it.”
Footsteps crunched behind me and I saw Keegan run up with Sophie and Dom. Keegan took in Nadine’s half naked body and the blood on the ground. “Jesus. I barely get into a truce with the alpha next door and you’re trying to kill two of his shifters? What happened?”
Nadine put one hand on her hip. “They were taunting us like they were going to…”
It was an ugly and scary word but it needed to be said.
“Rape us,” I finished, and Keegan’s eyes glowed yellow as a growl tore from his throat. Dom pulled two guns out from inside of his hoodie and held them at his sides. His chiseled face looking murderous.
I don’t think Logan knew what the men’s intentions with us were, because upon hearing me say that, his fists clenched. “I’ll kill them,” Logan said between labored breaths. Sophie’s face fell in compassion; she pulled her coat off and walked to put it around Nadine.
Keegan spoke up from beside me. I didn’t even notice he had moved closer to me. “We need to stay here for a few weeks at least, so Logan can train Sloane. We can’t go on the road with her in this state. Until then, we need to play nice with the neighbors … unless they provoke any of us again.”
Dom sneered. “And if they do?” he asked, and I was finally given an unobstructed view of his face sans hoodie. He was good looking, but the fine scars and hard-set eyes told me he had lived a hard life.
Keegan peeled back his lips, showing all of his teeth. “Then we kill them.”
Logan was pacing the forest, hands clenched. I could sense he was trying to keep his dragon from rushing to the surface.
“You okay, bud?” Keegan crooned in a calm voice as if he was approaching a rabid dog. Maybe he was. Logan looked positively ready to attack.
Logan spoke through gritted teeth. “I thought they were just having a territory dispute, not that they were going to…”
Ahh yes. That word again. Rape. No one wanted to say it. It was that awful. A total violation of your body. I had a friend in college, Tamara, who was raped at a frat party. She came to me crying the next day and told me. She was trying to reason it out; she was wearing revealing clothing and had drunk a lot. I had to be her voice of reason. Did he obtain consent? She shook her head and had burst into sobs, telling me she tried to push him off and said no three times. I knew it would be hard but she needed to fight it. In the end, it got a ton of bad publicity for the school and the boy was expelled but never served jail time because she willingly went into the room with him. What kind of bullshit is that? Some old male judge sits on his throne and decides that because a pretty girl in a short dress goes into a room with a guy at a frat party, that guy is owed sex? It was awful, and I was there every step of the way with Tamara. She was now going to law school
while working at a nonprofit as an advocate for young girls who had experienced that same thing.
“Nothing happened…” I tried to soothe Logan’s fears, because I knew what it felt like to have all of that pent-up rage for a friend. I’d had it for Tamara. The moment she told me about the incident, I’d asked her if she wanted me to help her hide the body. I also knew how hard it was to control the dragon, and if Logan shifted it would tip off the hunters.
He stopped pacing and faced me. “But it could have.” His eyes were a searing green, as if they had been ignited with fire.
Nadine spoke in a light-hearted tone. “No way. We totally had them. Me with my jujitsu and Sloane with her purple whatever that was.”
Everyone looked at me as she addressed the elephant in the room.
“Purple what?” Keegan asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know what happened. One second my body felt like it was vibrating with electricity and the next there was a mountain lion jumping at my face. I … threw purple magic at him, I guess, and he collapsed.”
“Purple?” Keegan and Sophie both said at the same time. Dom just stared at me behind thick eyebrows.
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, purple. What’s the big deal?”
Logan exhaled loudly and crossed the distance between us. He pointed to Keegan. “Shifters have no magic, beyond that of shifting, extreme strength, and other traits of a shifter … but no magic. Dragons have green magic.” He pointed to himself. “Eva, and the other sorcerers powerful enough to produce magic, have yellow magic. And lastly, druids have red magic.”
“Oh.” Shit. What was wrong with me? I had some freaky purple magic. No wonder they were all staring at me.
“So … what does purple magic mean?” I asked, trying not to sound afraid. Tried and failed.
“Different colored magic can mean…” He lowered his voice to barely above a whisper. “That you’re a hybrid.”
I had conveniently blocked out what Eva had said in her office. About my mother not being a dragon, that maybe she was some other type of magical creature. But it all hit me now. Confirmation. My legs went weak and I involuntarily fell backward. Logan rushed forward and caught me just as I passed out.
8
I AWOKE IN the bed of my unicorn room and heard muffled voices just outside of my door. I rolled over and could see that it was popped open a few inches.
“No, no, human DNA is too weak to carry a dragon child. They always miscarry,” Logan whispered.
“Well, then, what is she? Hybrids are rare, right?” Keegan whispered back.
“Very,” Logan spoke. “So much so that I’ve only ever heard of a handful. I know that shifters and skyborn species cannot bear young, so she can’t be part shifter. She might be part sorcerer though.”
Keegan gave a low whistle. “This is crazy. Girl lives her whole life spelled to think she’s human, and now this. If people found out there was another dragon. A hybrid dragon at that…”
Logan’s voice turned sharp, deadly. “No one will find her.”
Keegan suddenly moved in front of the doorway. I could see his back through the crack. “Her heart rate has elevated. She’s awake.”
Logan sighed. “Alright. I’ll go talk to her. You need to hire two new shifters. You’re right, six isn’t enough.”
Keegan must have been grinning; I could hear it in his voice. “You don’t tell me I’m right often enough, my friend. I like the sound of it. I’ll get right on it. Not sure there are two more shifters in the world I trust, but I know a friend who has a pack of old-school shifters that were raised to protect like Sophie and I were. I trust him, and they will take the oath of protection same as I did.”
It sounded like this oath of protection was something you couldn’t go back on without serious consequences.
“Thank you,” Logan told him, and Keegan moved to leave. “One more thing … I think we need a pack sorcerer, and Danny is powerful and I trust him … Eva’s too busy with the bar.” I could feel the tension in the air from my place on the bed ten feet away.
“You want me to hire my ex-boyfriend? The one I broke up with to keep your secret?” Keegan’s voice could cut glass and it gave me chills. There was so much hurt there.
Logan’s voice was soft but laced with anger. “I told you to tell him who I was. I never wanted you guys to break up.”
Keegan growled but it wasn’t threatening, more just to blow off steam. “We have rules. No one outside of this pack can know who you are.”
“Unless it’s your mate or someone who takes the oath,” Logan added.
“Danny is neither. I’ll see you later,” Keegan said, and stalked off down the hall, his feet stomping out the anger I knew he was feeling.
For such a hardass and closed-off guy, I was surprised by how much emotion he showed over his ex. He must have really loved him, and still did by the sound of it, but took his own rules too seriously to hang on to the guy. I was so caught up in the Keegan and Danny soap opera that I almost didn’t notice Logan enter the room. He popped the door open wide and crossed over to my bed.
“You heard everything, didn’t you?” Logan asked, and there was a little relief in his face. Like he didn’t want to keep things from me, and he also didn’t want to have to say it again.
I nodded. “I’m probably half skyborn, half sorcerer, and Keegan is hiring more people to protect us.” I left out the ex-boyfriend drama to be respectful.
Logan nodded. “That’s right. Which means I have no way of training you fully because I don’t deal in … purple magic.”
I rolled my eyes. “Stop saying purple like it’s cancer. Purple is a badass color.” I motioned to the unicorn on the wall that had a magnificent purple glitter horn.
Logan smiled sheepishly, letting me know he appreciated my rare and often misunderstood sense of humor. “Nevertheless, you might blast my head off if I’m not careful, and you also might send a beacon out to the world saying ‘come find me.’ I have no idea what hybrid magic is capable of.”
It dawned on me then. “That’s why you want a sorcerer in the pack.”
Logan nodded, running his fingers over his chin stubble in what I was learning was his thinking gesture. “I need a sorcerer there to shield our training sessions and also to … fix stuff if it goes south.”
“This whole talk is not very confidence inspiring. Why don’t we just skip the magic training altogether?” Please, no more running. No more purple magic.
Logan’s eye narrowed a little as he stepped closer to the bed. “Sloane, it’s only a matter of time before the hunters find us again. Fighting off the druids is a full-time job. If you’re not prepared, if I’m not around to save you … you’re dead.”
Those words. You’re dead. They slapped out at me, bringing the harsh reality of my new life with it. But something else he said bothered me.
“Why would you not be around?” I asked insecurely, and stared at a piece of lint on the carpet. Maybe he would train me and leave. Maybe I was too much of a risk to keep around long-term.
“This is a dangerous life. I might die, and then you would be left behind to carry on the magic alone. If I don’t train you in time, then my knowledge dies with me.” His voice was stone cold, void of emotion, but his words made a pulsing ache constrict my heart. My inner dragon flared to life and I stood suddenly, facing Logan, inches from his face. I knew instinctively that my eyes were glowing. I didn’t know why I stood or what I was going to say, I just knew that talk of Logan dying made me want to lock him in a cage and keep anyone from hurting him. Karma. Logan’s eyes fell to my lips and I licked them, relishing the warm throb that had started in my gut. I couldn’t explain it, but there was something about Logan Sharp that made me feel like we were two magnets constantly being pulled to each other. I didn’t want to fight the pull anymore.
“I dreamt about you,” Logan breathed; his hand came up to stroke my hair, staring at the bright red strands as if they held some truth. His declaration of dreaming
about me had the breath stopping in my chest. I leaned forward, pulling myself up on my tiptoes. All rules of no dating within the pack had flown out my head. I wanted Logan Sharp and I wanted him now. My dragon preened at the inner declaration as Logan’s hand went from my hair to the back of my neck. Yes.
He leaned forward slowly, all the while asking me with his eyes if this was okay. When he got closer, I closed my eyes and pursed my lips. But just as I felt the heat of his breath, Nadine shouted from downstairs.
“Logan! Eva’s here. There’s trouble!” Her voice held panic, and the raging inferno that had built in my belly was doused as Logan rocked back on his heels, dropping his hand.
He looked at me for one more long moment and then sighed, turning and striding towards the door. Damn. That was an epic kissing fail. Now that his smoldering body was away from me, I had time to gather my wits. Kissing Logan, my trainer and fellow surviving dragon, was a bad idea. Right? Like Nadine said, if we dated and broke up, it would be a disaster and I would be kicked out of the pack. Now that I had seen all of the supernatural dangers in the world, I didn’t want to leave the pack. It was safe. I needed to staunch my hormones and play cool.
I smoothed my hair and shirt and jogged down the stairs to join them. Just as I was rounding into the kitchen, I heard Eva talking to Nadine, Gear, and Logan.
“Two druids at the bar. They have a truth witch with them and they’re asking about a redhead,” Eva said, causing me to stop dead, mouth popped half open.
“Since when do the druids have a truth witch?” Logan asked as I was trying to decipher what the hell a truth witch was. It didn’t sound good.