by Leela Ash
Would she ever deserve that?
The black swooped down, Shifting into Brandon Lorde as it touched the ground. Owen, the green, followed. Finally, the gold touched down and extended a leg. Tess slid off its shoulder and bounced to the ground. Air shimmered, and her Mate, Darian, stood beside her.
“Stay back!” she warned. “There’s a thing here on the ground. Finn took one look at it and he froze!”
“Explain, Annie.” Not hostile, not friendly, Lorde watched her warily. “What is this ‘thing’?”
No time to worry about her dignity. “Okay, first, my name’s Dakota, not Annie. And I’m an idiot, not a traitor. I accidentally brought something here. Don’t look at it!” she yelped, as Owen squinted at the ground. “It’s supposed to be a GPS tracker, but I think it comes from the Fangs of Apophis.”
“Can you remove it?”
“No. It won’t budge, and it’s started to defend itself.” She held up her hand, pock-marked with white. “Though…hang on!” She shrugged off her jacket and tossed it over the rod. To her relief, the jacket fell flat, hiding the magical trinket.
Yet Finn still didn’t move. “He said someone’s name. Kirsten?”
“Kirsten was Finn’s wife,” Darian said. “The Fangs murdered her.”
Eerie, but not helpful. Fresh out of ideas, Dakota rubbed her injured hand and prayed the Dragons knew what to do.
One quick scan around the glade and Lorde shook his head. “We need Witch Hares. I’ll call Amarie. Morland, get the Miami Warren up here.”
“What about Bree?” Tess suggested.
Lorde waved the suggestion off. “Not skilled enough yet. She’s new to her powers.”
“But she’s Finn’s Mate. She ought to know what…”
“No. Finn won’t thank you for upsetting her.”
Tess might not be a Dragon, but she didn’t challenge the Alpha further.
As the two other Dragons began to make their calls, Owen wandered closer, peering at Finn. Dakota’s heart beat faster. He was here. Close enough to touch. The man who murdered…
…Who had been accused of murdering her sister. Accused by people she knew were liars.
So, why did her fury linger? Why did she still long to slap his handsome, rakish face as he studied Finn? Hatred bubbled up within her, a deep, soul-sick loathing.
Cally. Lying dead in an alley. Rotting. Dumped like garbage.
In vain, Dakota fought to drive that image out of her mind. She had no reason to blame Owen for that! He had done nothing to her!
As if he could read her mind, Owen spun toward her. Power flooded through him, setting his emerald eyes ablaze with inhuman light. Dakota shrieked as he snatched her up, claws sprouting from his fingertips.
He’s going to kill me! He’s going to eat me! He’s…
He whirled, throwing himself between her and the lead tracker.
One glance showed why. Her jacket was rising into the air, lifted by a fountain of shadow and black feathers that erupted from the ground like a geyser of filth.
Owen was shielding her. Protecting, not destroying.
Dakota couldn’t see the tracker, lost in that spreading shower of darkness. Yet her guardian slowed and winced.
“So many…” he whispered. “What were their names? I can’t even remember. How awful is that?”
“Jackson!” Lorde bellowed.
Her jacket fluttered to the ground. A pillar of darkness rose from where the tracker had fallen. Taller than a man, it boiled with feathers and shadow. Black eyes, glittering with rage, appeared and vanished among its strands. Dozens of them. Hundreds. A sea of rage and hatred staring through the darkness.
Dakota scrambled away from it. To her horror, Lorde and Darian stopped moving.
“Alinor,” Lorde sighed.
“Charity. Oh God, Charity, I’m sorry,” Darian groaned, his words nearly a sob. One hand rose to massage his shoulder, where the edge of his Dragon tattoo peeked out from under his collar.
For a second, Tess froze too – then she whipped a pistol from her shoulder holster and pointed it at Dakota’s face. “What the hell is that thing?”
Go ahead, she begged the Fae woman silently, pull the trigger. Then it will all be over. I won’t have to fix this. I won’t have to see the look in Michael’s face when he finds out how I betrayed him.
No. Death was the coward’s path, and she wouldn’t take it. Shaking, Dakota raised her hands. “I don’t know. It’s standing over a lead rod with MeYaipa written on it.”
“What?” The gun didn’t waver. “Why did you bring it here?”
“I didn’t mean to. I thought it was a GPS tracker and I left it at home. But it… I swear it got itself into my pocket!”
In the distance, Dakota heard a steady thumping. Faster, less ponderous than a Dragon’s wings.
Tess didn’t lower her weapon. “Give me one reason I should trust you.”
“I’m Michael’s Mate. I really am.”
“So? You betrayed him.”
“I did.” Her eyes filled with tears. “Because I doubted him. Because I listened to liars. But I’m sorry and I’ll fix this. I promise.”
“How?”
That was the big question. Though another question grew more urgent. “Are we expecting helicopters? Because I hear a bunch.”
“What? Shit!” Tess holstered the gun and quickly dialed a number. “John? Fangs incoming! Get the other Bears out, now! All Dragons down! Run and regroup!”
The Fangs of Apophis? Here?
“Shit!” Tess screamed the word at the top of her lungs and shot Dakota a venomous glare. “I’ll trust you for now, but I swear if you screw us over, I will kill you.”
“I won’t! I promise! I…”
“Save your breath,” the slender woman snapped as she trotted toward the woods. “Come on.”
“But we can’t just leave them here!”
“Yes, we can. We are.”
“But the Fangs will…”
Tess rounded on her, tears spilling down her heart-shaped face. “Do you think I don’t know that?” she wailed. “Darian is my Mate! The father of our kids! Do you think I don’t…” The rest of her words were lost in an agonized sob.
Silent, shamed, Dakota slunk over to the Shifter as she scrubbed the tears from her face.
“Do you have a way to beat a chopper full of Shifter warriors?” Tess snarled. “Because I don’t. And that sounds like what’s coming.”
“No.” Despair filled Dakota as she turned her back on the helpless Dragons. Transfixed by her treachery.
“Then we run. And we pray the Fangs don’t immediately kill them. Because I want to rescue my Mate, not avenge him.”
Chapter 9
Halfway through breakfast, a tidal wave of doom slammed into Michael.
OUR MATE IS IN DANGER!
His Dragon roared to life, sending him hurtling to his feet and knocking his chair over.
“Michael, what’s wrong?” Hannah’s eyes widened in shock. Children and family, sitting around Jackson’s breakfast table, gaped at him.
“Something’s wrong. At the Wellspring.”
“Oh no! Annie?”
He didn’t answer her. He was already bolting for the car and dialing the pilot of the private plane that had brought them here.
Fly! Fly! No time for planes!
Foolish, but the urge to throw himself into the heavens was maddening.
Planes are faster, he reminded his Dragon. Much faster!
His Dragon raged with disbelief and fury.
Michael didn’t know why Annie was at the Wellspring or who had threatened her. But he knew he needed to get there.
Now.
Tess’ call arrived a half hour later as he boarded the Learjet. By the time his pilots were tearing east toward New York, he knew it all.
The Fangs had seized the Wellspring and the Stiles’ farm. Lorde, Morland, Donnelly and Jackson… all captured, bound by a powerful spell. The Bears had fled. Of Walker, J
ackson’s vile Rat, there was no sign. Tess and Annie headed, now, to a motel a safe distance away.
No, not ‘Annie’.
Dakota.
His Mate had lied to him. And, it seemed, this whole mess was her fault.
By rights, his Dragon should be berserk. Nothing enraged a Protector more than a threat to his loved ones. Michael half expected to spend the entire flight fighting to prevent it from ripping through the side of the little jet and flying off.
Yet it crouched, silent, stunned by the shock of this betrayal.
I don’t even know who she is. She could be a member of the Fangs.
Tess said Dakota swore it was a mistake. That she’d been tricked.
Neither he nor his Dragon soul drew much comfort from that.
How could she deceive me? How could she doubt me and fall for their lies?
How could she embarrass me?
Petty and selfish, that thought rang through his head time and again. Amid the pain, shock, and grief, his mind kept circling back to a different emotion: shame.
Embarrassment.
What will the Flight think of me? I Claimed a dupe of the Fangs. I’ll never be able to hold my head up among them again.
Michael had always thought himself Brandon Lorde’s equal. Age and experience gave his Alpha an edge, but that was all. In time, he could be the Master of the First Flight. He above all his brothers kept the Alpha on his toes, challenging him whenever he made mistakes.
Now this. Lorde had never even dreamed of a screw up this big.
Am I really so petty? Does my pride matter most? More than love, even?
He couldn’t honestly say ‘no.’ A fact that horrified him and shamed him yet again.
So, as the jet sliced through the stormy skies, Michael drank and brooded. The doom that haunted him faded to unease. Wherever the women were, they were safe.
Somewhere over Minnesota, Tess texted an address for the Franklin Motel. A car awaited him at the Schenectady County Airport and Michael sped north at once.
A run-down, dingy little strip motel, the Franklin languished too far off Route 90. Newer, nicer places gobbled up all the travelers. Tess’ and Dakota’s rooms were obvious, since there was only one vehicle in the parking lot; a big Harley hog.
Surveying the litter and dead ‘lawn’, his Dragon grumbled.
Our Mate deserves a better lair.
Let me get this straight. The woman who humiliated us and may have gotten our Flight killed… deserves a better room?
Sighing and muttering, the great serpent settled back down.
Tess answered his knock, unsmiling. “Hey, Michael.”
“Tess. Any idea what’s going on at the Wellspring?”
“I know Darian’s still alive – apparently, you Dragons aren’t the only ones who know when your Mate’s in danger.”
Okay. That was something. A big something. “He still at the Wellspring?”
“Yup.”
Moving a Dragon might be difficult, but why wouldn’t the Fangs kill him?
The door to the next room lay open. Movement drew his eye to it. And to a woman with downcast eyes and cheeks blazing red with shame.
Annie. No.
“Dakota.”
“Michael.”
“And… that’s my cue.” Tess snatched up her room key. “I’ll go grab some food and let you two talk.”
Neither of them said a word until the roar of the Harley faded into the distance. Then, eyes fixed on the floor, Dakota sighed. “I am so sorry. I am so, so sorry.”
“Why?” Wounded pride set an edge to that word. “Do you work for the Fangs?”
“No, I work for a homeless shelter.”
Which didn’t make sense at all. Michael began to pace back and forth across the cramped room. “Why did you lie to me?”
“Because I didn’t know you. They said Dragons were predators. That you ate your Mates.”
“And you believed that?” Shocked to his core, he stared at her in disbelief.
“I don’t know what Dragons are like!”
“We’re Protectors!”
“I know that… now. But in most stories, you’re awful.”
She thought him a monster. Some princess-eating beast from a fairytale. Michael shook his head, appalled.
Shame made his Mate’s cheeks burn almost as red as his hair. “I was going to tell you.”
“When?” he sneered.
“As soon as you got back. Once I saw your Flight together, I knew it was mostly lies.”
“‘Mostly’? So, some part was true?”
Dakota hung her head. “I still thought they might be right about Owen. Maybe he was betraying your Flight. I mean, he did bring that Rat.”
Owen Jackson. The guy who just uncovered a corrupt Warren of Hares, working for the Fangs? “That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Michael!” Tears welled in her eyes and, to his complete disgust, they ate at his hard heart like acid. Even his Dragon roused, hissing at him in annoyance.
Do not upset our Mate.
“I’m sorry. They told me he killed my sister, Cally.”
Dammit, none of this made sense. “Why would Owen hurt her?”
“Cally was kind of wild and… and they told me he got her pregnant.”
“Oh.” For the first time, his proud outrage faltered. “He actually might have done that. His Mate Ariel calmed him down, but Jackson used to be pretty wild himself.”
“Wild enough to murder a woman because he didn’t want their child?” Dakota grew still, her eyes drying.
“No. Wild enough to get her pregnant and run out on her, though. He’s got three kids by some woman he used to hook up with. I doubt a fourth would have ruffled him at all.”
Her shoulders slumped at that. “Then I guess I was wrong about everything.”
She looked so sad, so dejected. Some idiotic urge to protect her welled up in his heart. Michael folded his arms across his chest before he could scoop her in a hug and promise that everything would be fine.
Because it wasn’t. She’d shamed him.
“So, what happens now?” Dakota wouldn’t look at him. “Are we still Mates?”
“The damned vows were for all time, so I assume so.” She flinched at his anger and he felt guilty. Him, dammit! The guy who was wronged!
“I’m sorry.”
“I know.” It was the best he could do. He couldn’t honestly tell her he forgave her.
A painful, awkward silence fell. Desperate to break it, Michael cleared his throat. “So, tell me something about yourself.”
Your real self, not the woman you pretended to be.
He bit that part back.
Somewhere, deep inside him, his Dragon keened and chewed anxiously on its talons.
He forced himself to stop pacing as she took a seat on one of the beds. And then, she talked. About her sister and their parents, two real estate professionals with very little interest in raising a family. About her work and how she drifted apart from Cally as her sister grew distant. Her suspicion that drugs played a role in their estrangement.
“I still should have been there for her. It was my fault.”
His Dragon rumbled with disapproval. A feeling Michael shared. “No, it wasn’t. Your sister made bad choices and…”
A Harley’s guttural roar silenced him. Tess popped inside, carrying a 7-11 bag of chips.
And with a familiar Rat trailing along behind her.
“Hey, guys! Look who I found sniffing around the dumpster.”
How convenient. Michael’s eyes narrowed. Walker Smith ‘just happened’ to show up at their hiding spot? Screw subtlety. He decided to be blunt. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Following them two.” The sullen Rat jerked a thumb at Tess and Dakota.
“Why?”
“Figured they’d try to save you Dragons.”
“And what? You’re offering to help us?”
“You? No,” Walker sniffed. “
But I owe Jackson. A lot. Like to pay that debt off.”
“Remember,” Tess interjected, “Rats make the best spies. Something we could really use right now.”
A good – if annoying – point.
“Okay, fine. He can stay.”
“Ain’t that nice of you.”
At that hint of a sneer, his Dragon reared up. How dare this Rat challenge him? Michael had to rein it in, hard, before it snapped at the impudent creature.
Driving our one spy away will not help us.
Hissing with displeasure, the serpent settled back down. Reluctantly.
“All right.” He gazed around the room at his allies’ tired, baffled faces. “Let’s figure out how to save the Flight!”
Chapter 10
Of course, Michael took charge. In Brandon Lorde’s absence, the role of Alpha naturally fell to him. Hell, even with Lorde around, he longed to challenge for control of the Flight. He was a born leader. Terrible as it was, this disaster gave him a chance to prove his worth to his brothers.
First step, marshal the forces. Only two other Dragons in his Flight escaped the Fangs’ trap, Aaron Cole and Jamie Wolfe. Cole didn’t answer his phone; a fact that disturbed Michael deeply. Wolfe was recovering down in Mexico with his Mate, Maya. Michael called and put him on speaker phone.
“You sure you’re well enough to help, Wolfe?”
“No question. I’m not abandoning my Flight.”
“Good.” Quickly, he laid out the path forward. “We need to move now, so we can’t wait for Cole. Wolfe, meet me in New York. We’ll head north together and hit the Fangs hard in the middle of the night. I expect there’ll be a lot of resistance – nothing two Dragons can’t handle, though. Once they’re routed we’ll bring in some Hares and figure out what this spell is.”
Simple. Clear. Aggressive. He liked his plan.
Unfortunately, none of the women did.
Tess was the first to protest. “You can’t fly in there blind! There could be any number of traps.”
“Fine. I’ll send the Rat in first to do recon.”