It was like staring into the sun.

The dragon’s huge jaws opened and a wave of fire came rolling down his long pink tongue. Gunner gasped as he felt the heat. A sheen of sweat poured out of his skin as it started to get painfully hot.

He closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and said goodbye to his long blonde hair as he turned away from the flames. They were coming too fast to move. The best he could do was to turn away and hope that his enhanced shifter healing could grow back melted skin.

But the flames never came.

Aleida jumped in front of the dragon’s mouth, throwing herself into the flames. She let out a piercing scream as the flames washed over her body that was shielding everybody else from the carnage.

Without thinking, Gunner ran past Aleida and leapt onto the dragon’s face, grabbing his nostril and pulling his nose up with a powerful yank. The dragon’s head jerked up, sending the jet of flames ripping through the roof.

Gunner was terrified to look at Aleida. He couldn’t bear seeing her dead body lying on the floor as the flames devoured her whole. Life was so unfair. He had finally found a girl who seemed to like him back, only to lose her a few hours later.

“You fucker!” he growled as he punched the hard scales on the dragon’s face. “You killed her!”

“Gunner!” a familiar voice called out. It was Rory. “Choke him.”

The wolf shifter tossed him the leather whip that he always carried on his belt. Rory always wanted to be a cowboy and never left his home without his cowboy hat, cowboy boots, and whip. Gunner used to make fun of him, but he would never do that again. If he survived.

Gunner reached out and caught the leather whip. He quickly wrapped it around the dragon’s neck and pulled as hard as he could. “Rggh,” he grunted as his arms and back strained with the effort. Every muscle in his body was flexed to the max as he pulled as hard as he could, trying to strangle the dragon.

The dragon thrashed his head around, smashing through the outer walls of the burning barn, but Gunner held on. His tail was whipping around, taking out the shifters that were still trying to attack.

The flames were spreading quickly in the old dry barn, crawling up the walls and over the ceiling. The room was thick with smoke and many of the animals inside were turning to flee.

One body caught Gunner’s eye as he struggled to hold onto the whip. Aleida was still standing. Her clothes were burnt off, but her skin looked unharmed.

It gave Gunner the extra bit of strength that he needed to hold on. He gritted his teeth and pulled even harder, trying to snuff out this threat to his girl, this threat to his alpha, and this threat to his town.

The dragon’s thrashes became less and less powerful with every second that Gunner prevented the oxygen from reaching his brain. He was going to pass out soon. Gunner could feel it.

He gave him one last pull as the ruthless flames ate the barn from the inside out, but the dragon didn’t go down. He raised his two enormous wings and began flapping them.

“Oh, shit,” Gunner cursed as the dragon leapt through the burning ceiling of the barn. Gunner grunted as a thick burning piece of wood slammed into his temple on the way out.

The dragon shot up into the air like a rocket. He moves so fast.

Cool air was racing against Gunner’s skin as he closed his eyes and held on as tightly as he could. When the dragon finally slowed, Gunner looked down and gasped. The burning barn that was engulfed in flames was the size of a toy, the shifters outside the size of ants.

“Uh oh,” he muttered as he looked around. They were higher than the snow-capped Abrasoka mountains. It felt like they were higher than the stars.

Gunner’s stomach dropped as the dragon tucked its wings and nosedived back down to the earth. Jarin was moving so fast and when he began spinning, Gunner couldn’t hold on. Rory’s leather whip slipped from his grasp and he cursed when it slipped out from around Jarin’s neck.

The dragon was free. In an instant, Jarin turned and disappeared over the mountains in the blink of an eye, leaving Gunner falling by himself.

The ground was coming up incredibly fast. Let’s hope lions can land on their feet.

He gritted his teeth as he quickly phased into his terrified lion.

I better have all nine lives left because this landing is going to cost me at least eight.

His lion wasn’t the graceful cat that Gunner had been hoping for. He was flailing around like crazy, yelping in fear as the ground raced up.

Uh oh. Maybe this will cost me all nine.