Simon had never wanted to stay with anyone as badly as he wanted to stay with Brittany. He wished he could stand by her side and protect her through this battle, but he knew that was impossible. He was responsible for defending the whole city, and he would just have to trust that that would be enough to keep Brittany safe, too.

Simon ran out of the military headquarters building to see that the crowd of Dark Warriors in the sky had grown thicker, and they were starting to attack buildings now. Several houses in the distance already looked like they were going up in flames, and the wail of fire engine sirens had joined the wail of war sirens. It was time for Simon to throw himself fully into battling these foes, although he wasn’t sure how much of a chance he stood. He was strong, but there were so many of them. Even Jasper, who had singlehandedly defended his clan during the last dark war, had surely never faced this many wizards at once. They were everywhere, like flies flocking to a dead carcass.

Speaking of Jasper, the man himself appeared as Simon ran down the steps of military headquarters.

“The High Council is safe?” Jasper asked, his eyes shifting warily up to look at the sky of enemies.

“Safe,” Simon confirmed. “Now it’s time to do what we can for the rest of the town.”

Jasper nodded grimly. “I’ve already spoken to the City Guard, and asked them to spread out to provide as much protection as possible, although I fear they won’t be able to do much. We’re horribly outnumbered.”

“But we have more heart than they do,” Simon said in a determined tone. “Those guys are cowards.”

Screeches that sounded like animals dying suddenly came from somewhere to the left of the building. Simon felt his blood run cold as Jasper shook his head in disgust.

“There are dark shifters on the ground, too. Running around trying to catch our citizens unaware. I hope you’re right, and that heart will be enough to win this fight.”

“It will,” Simon said with conviction. It had to be. He had only just found Torch Lake. He wasn’t going to lose it now.

“Enough talk, then,” Jasper replied. “Let’s do this. You cover the east side of the city, and I’ll cover the west. Godspeed to you, brother.”

“And to you,” Simon replied. And then, he was off running, already shifting into dragon form as he sped toward the east side of the city. His clothes tore away into shreds as his body grew and his skin thickened into dragon hide. His arms and legs morphed into dragon arms and legs, and his head became the mighty head of a dragon. As soon as his wings sprouted, he began to flap them, rising high into the sky.

Rage filled him unlike anything he had ever known. This was his city. These were his people that the Dark Warriors were attacking. How dare anyone come into his city and cause death and destruction like this? Simon would kill every last one of them or die trying.

Within minutes, he had risen into the thick of the wizards. Below him, he knew shifters were running wild on the ground, causing damage down there as well. But he figured most of Torch Lake’s citizens would have an easier time defending themselves against shifters than against dark magic, so he’d decided to go after the dark wizards first. Hopefully, he’d made the right choice.

“Dragon!” one of the wizards screamed as Simon appeared in their midst. “One of the dragons is over here!”

“Attack him! You have your orders! Take him down at all costs!” another wizard yelled.

Simon huffed. I’d like to see you try.

With a roar, he breathed in as deeply as he could, and then breathed out a long stream of fire. Wizard screams filled the air as several of them caught fire and went tumbling down to their doom. But Simon had barely scratched the surface. The Dark Warriors were everywhere, and they just kept coming. He could hardly wrap his mind around how many of them there were. How had they managed to get into the city? None of this made sense. Even if there had been a weak spot in the City Guard, sneaking this many soldiers in would have been far too obvious. And where had they all been hiding once they did get into the city? Surely, someone would have noticed that they were here? An army of this magnitude couldn’t exactly fly under the radar.

But whether it made sense or not, they had done it. The army was here, and was causing massive destruction even as Simon flew among them, stopping as many as he could.

I have to defeat them. I cannot let them win. For Torch Lake’s sake, and for Brittany’s sake. Simon would find a way to take down every last one of these bastards. He’d been their captive before, because they’d caught him off guard and managed to kidnap him. But they hadn’t caught him off guard today. He’d known they were coming and he’d been ready, and now, he was going to show them what happened when you made a dragon angry.

He swooped in and out among their ranks, breathing fire in an almost constant stream, and swiping wizards off their broomsticks with his claws. They launched attack after attack at him, but their magic merely bounced off his thick dragon hide. He knew they were trying to hit him in one of his few vulnerable spots, where their dark magic would actually penetrate through his hide. But those spots were small and hard to hit, and Simon wasn’t too worried about them. He was more worried about the sheer number of dark wizards. No matter how many he took out, they seemed to just keep coming.

Below him, he heard roars and screams as well. He glanced down, and saw with pride that the people of Torch Lake were determined to not go down without a fight. Even though they weren’t trained soldiers, many people were fighting with all their might to hold back the enemy shifters.

Heart is enough. Heart will win this fight.

At least, Simon hoped that was true. Everything was a blur right now, and all he could do was fight as fiercely as he could. When he glanced to the west, he could see flashes of blue light from where Jasper, who was a rare acid-breathing dragon, was taking out dozens of dark wizards at a time. Simon’s dragon lips turned up in a smile as he returned his focus to the dark wizards in front of him. If nothing else, this one thing was certain: Torch Lake wasn’t going down without one hell of a fight.

The minutes stretched on, until Simon was sure he’d been fighting for at least an hour. It didn’t feel much like the numbers of Dark Warriors were decreasing, though, and he let out a roar of frustration as he took out another half dozen dark wizards with one long breath of fire. How was it possible for him to have been fighting so well for so long, and to still not have made a dent in the enemy’s army? They seemed to be almost more numerous than they’d been at the beginning. Simon felt a touch of despair, and that despair only grew when he glanced down and saw that much of the city appeared to be burning.

The Dark Warriors had apparently set fire to many of the buildings all across town, probably in hopes of flushing out the citizens who were trying to hide out inside, away from the fight. The fire crews had long since given up on trying to respond to every blaze, and were focusing mainly on the most important buildings, like the government buildings. Simon knew they were doing the best they could, but his heart ached thinking of all the people who were losing their homes tonight. This thought filled him with a fresh rage, and he doubled up on his efforts to take out the Dark Warriors.

In the midst of another long stream of fire, he noticed that one fire was getting particularly large. Squinting at it, his heart nearly stopped in his chest when he realized where the fire was coming from: Military Headquarters.

With another roar, this one louder than any he’d ever made, he swooped downward toward the building. The emergency bunker was fireproof, but if the rest of the building burned away, it would be obvious where the emergency bunker was. Simon feared that if that happened, the Dark Warriors would begin concentrating all of their efforts on breaking into the emergency bunker. They would surely realize at that point that someone or something important was in there. The bunker could hold out for a while, but not forever. If the wrath of an entire army was directed at it, the bunker would fall.

Simon could not let that happen. He would not let that happen.

Inside that bunker were Torch Lake’s most precious citizens. The High Council, who had lovingly built this town from nothing into a diverse, thriving community of the very best shifters and wizards Simon had ever met. And, of course, Brittany, whom Simon already knew was the love of his life. The Dark Warriors had already stolen so much from so many. Simon was not about to let them steal Brittany from him.

Adrenaline and rage unlike anything he’d ever felt pumped through his veins. He abandoned the battle in the sky and flew straight toward the military headquarters building, his green eyes flashing with anger as he saw that the structure of the building was already falling away, consumed by the dark magic flames the Dark Warriors had been throwing at it. As he approached, he saw the Dark Warriors near the building looking up at him with gleeful eyes. He realized that they must somehow know that the High Councilors were in that building, and they were intent on finding them.

But they hadn’t counted on dealing with a dragon protecting his lifemate.

Simon became, in that moment, the most fearsome version of himself possible. Dragons are ancient creatures, with traces of magic in their DNA. When you push them too far, they can and will do the impossible. Faced with the potential loss of his lifemate, Simon Fillmore did the impossible.

He moved at twice the speed he normally would, and the fire he was breathing out became unnaturally purple and dark. He dove through the air so fast that the Dark Warriors could not even see him. All they could see was a dark purple streak of death coming for them. They screamed at each other, thinking that Torch Lake had just released some sort of secret weapon. But the only secret weapon here was a dragon who had decided that enough was enough, and that today would not be the day that he lost his city or his lifemate.

The Torch Lake citizens on the ground gawked at the purple streak that flew back and forth across the sky, like some sort of giant eraser wiping out every last enemy wizard. On the west side of the city, even Jasper paused his fighting to take in the strange purple streak of fire. But Jasper was not confused by the streak. He knew what it was, and his dragon lips turned up in a smile before he himself tapped into the ancient dragon energy filling the air. Soon, a blue streak of acid filled the air alongside the purple streak of fire. Within minutes, the battle was over.

From that moment forward, this battle would be forever revered in Torch Lake’s history books as the moment that love saved the day. Love of a dragon for his lifemate, and for his city. It had given Simon a supernatural, ancient power stronger than any attack any enemy could throw at him, and he had done the impossible. Or, perhaps, a better way to say it was that he had done the only thing that was ever possible for a mighty dragon shifter to do at the end of it all: he had beaten back evil with love.