Then everything stopped. Time stood still as she watched Col’s black dragon form fall from the sky. He hit the ground over the rise of a hill. She couldn’t see him. The sky remained empty. He wasn’t getting back up. He wasn’t leaping into the air. He was just…gone.
Col.
Air wouldn’t inhale.
Her heart wouldn’t beat.
Naomi fell to her knees in the snow. She’d lost him. He was gone. Her worst fears realized. She’d let herself love him. She’d let herself move forward. Look what it’d gotten her. More pain. More heartache. She screamed into the fury of the wind, but the sound was thrown back into her face, a futile cry of desperation that no one could hear. Fiery streams of tears ran down her cheeks, creating a sharp contrast to the bitter cold wind.
“Naomi!” Tor’s deep voice slipped through the howl of the wind like a gentle whisper. Like he was miles away and she was only hearing the echo of his cry.
Nothing mattered anymore. She’d lost the man who’d made her feel alive. For two years she’d been a living shadow. And then Col had quite literally crashed into her life. Her pulse pounded in her head, drowning out the whisper of Tor’s worry. She bent down, touching her forehead to her legs, weeping under the deafening and painful and torturing roar of her adrenaline and emotions. And something else…something else was burning from deep inside. Like a fire had ignited in her veins.
A dragon bugled overhead.
Naomi looked up.
The red dragon circled and then banked in the grey sky. Turned toward her. The red leathery wings were a sharp and stunning contrast to the pure white and grey sky. Sefa was getting closer. Naomi could see the glow of the dragon’s eyes. Feel the force of her wings as she dove toward the ground with the speed and agility of a hunting eagle.
A feline growl shook Naomi’s body from behind. An enormous orange and black striped animal leapt in front of her, blocking the red dragon’s first attempt to snatch her from the ground. The dragon’s claws ripped through his hide and the tiger shifter screamed in pain. Then Sefa cast him away like an unwanted stuffed animal.
The red dragon turned on Naomi again.
There was nowhere to go. Nothing to do.
Sefa had won.
The red dragon dove again. Tor was down. The lions were too far away. Sefa’s claw closed around Naomi’s torso. Around her ribs. The claw around her got tighter, squeezing until it was difficult to breathe. Pain crept like spreading frost across the surface of her skin. Burning. Burning. Burning.
Her pulse stuttered, like a car engine that wouldn’t turn over. Her stomach knotted. Her vision blurred, and the silence was deafening.
Then everything slipped away to black. A black she couldn’t see any way to escape.
14
Col groaned and rolled from his back to his side. The snow drifts were packed hard under his massive dragon body, like a sheet of unforgiving granite. His wings were pinned at an uncomfortable angle. Col lifted his head from the ground and opened his eyes. Everything was white. In every direction. He couldn’t see even the few feet between his face and his feet.
The storm had intensified. He couldn’t see Naomi. Couldn’t hear her.
Mate. His whole body leapt to action. He clawed the rest of the way to his feet and swung his head through the swirling storm of snow.
The cabin had to be close. They hadn’t flown far. How had Sefa knocked him out of the sky? How had she gotten the drop on him? He looked around again, hoping to see more than white. Still nothing. Where was the red dragon?
A bugle cry tore from his large muzzle, challenging her to finish the fight. She’d knocked him down. Why wasn’t she coming back? He shook out his wings, ready to fly. Still no challenge. He tucked them back close to his body. His chest rattled with an unspent roar.
She wouldn’t have given up this fast.
But she was…gone?
A lion’s call split through the fury of the snowstorm. Not a war cry, but a summons. Col lumbered toward the sound and bugled again. The screaming wind and churning snow made him blind.
A feline roar echoed from the distance again.
A few more steps through the fog of white.
Over and over this repeated. He would call out. The lion would reply. One foot in front of the next. Each step brought him a little closer to his Tribe.
Col trudged forward. Another lion roar echoed across the expanse, different this time. He was so focused on getting back to them, he barely noticed the soreness and bruising from his fall.
He caught the faint scent of Naomi’s flowery soap and dipped his head lower, closer to the ground. His mate’s scent was mixed in with the tiger’s.
With the tiger’s blood.
His stomach rolled. His nostrils flared, and fear plunged like a sharp talon into his chest, reaching all the way to his pounding heart. Deeper. Deeper. Deeper.
Tor was injured?
Where was Naomi? When had she come outside?
“Over here,” a voice called out this time—the lion named Saul. “Tor’s been injured.”
He charged toward the voice. The lights of the cabin came into view. The rising panic released, and his pulse slowed. He’d smelled her. She would be here. She had to be here.
Col pushed back his dragon and shifted into his human form. He charged up the steps into the cabin, shoving past Saul. The door was still open. “Naomi? Where is Naomi?”
The tiger shifter was on the floor with an enormous row of bloody gashes along his bare chest.
Dragon claw.
Col had made that pattern on more than one enemy. “Where is she?” He scanned the cabin. Her scent was there, but she was not. He couldn’t hear her.
“He stopped her the first time.” Kann knelt next to Tor, holding a rag against the deepest gash, slowing the blood flow. “We were right behind him.” Kann shook his head. “The female dragon picked your mate up before we could get to her. I’m sorry.”
Col’s gut wrenched. His vision blurred. His heart heaved and rolled and crashed in his chest, cutting off his air, his control, his will to live.
Gulping wordless breaths, he tried to fill his burning lungs with something that would bring back that will. But oxygen wasn’t enough. All the air in Reylea and Earth and all the worlds wouldn’t be enough without Naomi.
“We’re going to find her.” Saul’s tone deepened with a command that echoed Col’s father.
Father.
He’d never feel the strength of his father’s arm around his shoulder again. Never feel the soft embrace of his mother. Never hear the sweet laugh of his sister. And now, Sefa had stolen Naomi too.
Bitch. Traitor. Murderer.
Anger grew and twisted and rose in his veins like the lava had risen through the ground of Reylea. Steady. Relentless. Unforgiving.
He wanted to tear her apart, limb from limb, wing from wing, spike from spike. His dragon would bathe in her blood and make sure she felt every excruciating moment of her long slow death. Then he would leave her carcass for the scavengers, just like he’d left her brother’s.
He hurled himself toward the front door. Toward the swirling wind and snow. His mate was out there. Somewhere.
Hands locked onto his arms and pulled him back. “Stop!” Saul and Kann shouted together. “You can’t track her in this. None of us can.”
Col snarled and snapped and slipped free of their grasp. “I have to find her.”
Only one step and they were on him again. “You have to wait. You won’t do any good to Naomi if you go out and die in this storm.” Kann’s logic bounced off like a sword would glance off his scales.
No effect. Just like the cold. He was immune.
Naomi needed him. Now.
“Release me.” Col’s skin tightened and burned. The two shifters snarled, sounding more lion than man, but still refused to let him out the door. Refused to let him go after his mate.
He threw off Saul first, tossing the large man across the room. The lion shifter thudde
d against the log wall and fell to the floor with a groan. Col’s hands partially shifted, growing long deadly talons, and he ripped at Kann, slicing through the flesh of the lion shifter’s arm and shoulder like he would a fresh kill.
Kann stumbled away from Col, clutching at the jagged edges of the wounds. His face was tight with pain, but he didn’t make a sound. Kann leaned against the front door, blood seeping between his fingers. Blocking his exit. Even bleeding, he still blocked Col’s path.
Bleeding.
Col looked at the blood dripping to the floor. He smelled the fresh copper scent. His nostrils flared, and he clenched his fists, shifting them back to fingers. He stared from Kann’s bloody shoulder to Tor’s larger chest wound. Col’s shoulders sagged.
“I lost her.”
Saul stood up across the room. “And, we’re going to get her back. The moment the wind lets up. We leave. Only then can we can track her. Track them both.”
“We can’t navigate in this weather. You couldn’t find the cabin without following our roars. How would we ever find a small human?”
“I lost her.” The words came out again, more broken this time. The realization of the truth they spoke was filling his stomach with rocks. The white seething snow outside was as good as a cage. No matter which way he moved, he wouldn’t be able to go anywhere.
Saul walked slowly to Col’s side. “Help me move Tor to the couch. The warmth will help him heal faster.” The lion shifter stood, waiting, watching. No fear showed in his eyes, only patience.
Col glanced back at Kann. The other shifter hadn’t moved. The drops of blood on the floorboards had expanded to a small puddle, but Kann wasn’t budging from blocking access to the closed door. Determined little bastard. As mad as he still was, he couldn’t help but feel a small amount of admiration for the Kann’s courage. Kann and Saul. Even Tor had tangled with a dragon to try and save his mate. And what was he doing? Causing more injury. Refusing to listen to reason.
“You should wrap that.” Col’s voice was wooden and emotionless.
Kann’s lips twitched before he spoke softly, “I will.”
“I’m sorry.”
Kann released a long sigh. “I know.”
“I have to do something.” Fear crawled up from the cold floor and wrapped its ugly fingers around his heart. He was helpless. Useless.
“Help Saul move Tor.” Kann never broke eye contact.
Col walked over to Tor’s body and grabbed the man’s legs. Saul took Tor’s shoulders and they lifted, moving him quickly to the long couch in front of the woodstove. The wounds weren’t bleeding anymore. They were angry and raw, but already healing. In less than an hour, they would be completely closed.
“N-a-omi?” The tiger shifter coughed and tried to turn his head.
Saul put his hand on Tor’s shoulder. “Naomi was lost. The red dragon took her. Rest, we will leave to find her once the storm lets up.”
“I can go now.” Tor tried to sit up and Saul pushed him back down.
“The storm is too heavy. We can’t see. We can’t scent. We have to wait.”
“Damn.” Tor sunk back into the cushions.
Col walked to the corner of the cabin and pounded the wall with his fist. “I should’ve killed Sefa the same day I killed Jaha. If I’d just left Naomi in that other cabin and hunted the bitch down. None of this would’ve happened.”
“You cannot know that for sure.” Saul leaned closer to the woodstove and rubbed his hands together. “Every choice you made once you recognized the soul call was to keep Naomi safe. Never doubt that.”
“It wasn’t enough.”
“You don’t know that either.” Saul turned to face Col, his expression solemn. “If the dragon female wanted her dead, she would’ve left her body here.”
Col swallowed down the rock lodged in his throat. Saul was right. Naomi could still be alive, but it wasn’t likely. “She seeks to punish me.” He slowly turned away from Saul and back to the door where Kann stood quietly—still bleeding. “And she has found the perfect way to do so.”
What better way to damn a dragon than to murder their mate…
Naomi moved a little and groaned. Everything ached as though she’d been run over by a bus. Or a train. Or maybe something bigger. What was bigger than a train?
She opened one eye and then the other, slowly, gritting her teeth against the biting wind. Her bare hands burned. Her face burned. She couldn’t tell if it was the heat her body was generating or the ice in the wind striking her bare skin. “Col,” she tried to call out. Her voice was swallowed by the wind swirling around her. Snow fell or was being blown around her, whiting out any landscape.
Naomi stretched her foot out and gasped when it fell off the edge of wherever she was sitting. She yanked it back and breathed deeply, her heart clawing its way up into her throat. Was she up on top of something?
She was leaning against jagged stone. Cold. Hard. Dark. Beneath her was the same. No snow remained. Her body had melted the snow and ice away.
Naomi reached into the blinding white and felt nothing. Until the snow ceased, and the wind died off, she couldn’t see, and couldn’t move. Not yet. At least from where she was, the stone wall at her back blocked some of the sting of the wind.
Where was the dragon that had picked her up?
Had she just been dropped somewhere?
No. No. No.
How would anyone ever find her in this? She fought against the panic rising in her chest. The part of her that wanted to move around and do something. She was as good as blind now. The blowing snow blended into everything. The light in the gray-white soup was fading, meaning the sun was setting soon. How long had she been out here?
She could feel the cold…but she wasn’t cold. Whatever was heating her from the inside was keeping her from turning into an Alaskan popsicle.
Nothing like getting superpowers from the bite of a dragon.
Naomi wrapped her arms around her knees and hugged them close to her body.
Just stay still. For now.
It wasn’t safe to move, not when she couldn’t see her way to climb down off of whatever she’d landed on. She breathed slowly, hauling air into her lungs and then blowing it out again. In and out. Again and again. The panic that had been digging into her chest like dozens of icepicks retreated. The air came and went, easier and easier.
She could hold on.
Col would be looking for her. He could find her.
As soon as the snow let up.
15
Col leaned against the front window of the cabin. Darkness had fallen but the snow hadn’t let up. Not in the least.
His dragon rumbled and thrashed inside him, still convinced the best course of action was the search. Blind or not, at least they’d be doing something besides just standing in this cursed cabin.
Sefa knew where he was. Why didn’t she return? Was she waiting for him to come to her? Had something happened? Was she lost in this snow with his mate?
“Col,” Kann called from behind him.
Col ignored the lion shifter and continued to watch out into the blackness.
“Col?”
“What?” He knocked over a small side table next to the window. The splintering wood soothed the seething dragon beneath, but only for a brief moment. His dragon wanted to kill. He wanted to kill. To destroy.
“You should eat something. We leave as soon as the storm stops.” Kann held out a golden loaf of some kind of bread.
He had no desire to eat. His stomach clenched and rolled at the thought. All he needed was Naomi. Life would continue for him only after he had her back safely in his arms. If that was even possible. “Eat then. I am fine.” He turned back to stare out the window. “Leave me alone.”
Col stood at the window for what seemed like hours.
The others moved quietly around, behind him. Even Tor had gotten up from the couch and eaten a little bread. His wounds had closed and were healing nicely. In a few more hours nothing would
remain but long scars, a permanent reminder of Sefa’s claws.
“Why are you here? Why did you seek me out to begin with?” Col asked, looking away from the blackness outside for a moment.
“We are a tribal people, Col. Our entire culture. We survive together, or not at all. This was drilled into us as younglings. Now we have lost our whole world. We have all lost our families and friends. We are in this new world with no support. No way to know if what we are doing will call attention to us. Or put us in danger. No way of knowing if the natives on this world are like us or not. At least the old magick followed us through and we can speak their language.”
Very true. If he hadn’t been able to speak to Naomi, it would’ve driven Col mad. He was very grateful for the old magick of Reylea.
The old stories, passed on from generations ago said that a magick-bender cast a spell on all of Reylea. Everyone with Reylean blood could speak any language spoken to them. It took a few minutes. Enough words had to be spoken first, but it worked without fail. All the tribes spoke different languages, but after the magick had been cast. Everyone could speak…everything.
Even here in this world, it’d continued for them. Naomi’s language had come to him. If there were other languages in this world, he’d be able to assimilate them as well.
“Is it not strange for you to drop all the disagreements? Unless it was the time of the gathering, none of the tribes ever came within several miles of each other. Rarely did even our hunting grounds overlap.” Col watched the darkness outside through the corner of his eye.
“Of course, it’s strange,” Saul said from his seat on the floor next to the wood stove. “It does not mean that it is not the right choice. We will not survive out here alone unless we just let our animals overtake us and live as beasts. Your mate is proof of that. There are things in this world we do not understand. So much exists here that did not on our world.”
“Saul is right. We need a human to instruct us about the people here and their machines.” Kann said the last word like it was painful.
Knock Down Dragon Out: Soulmate Shifters in Mystery, Alaska Book 1 Page 12