If it weren’t for the storm, they’d never have gotten as far into the building as they did. As it was, the scrambled security feed only revealed the intruders when they were already well into storming the place.

“Arm yourselves!” Mary ordered, tossing out rifles as she’d toss out candy, her men immediately tapping into their military training as they ran out to face our foes.

I took a rifle for myself, ready to blow somebody’s head off. I had one particular person in mind.

“Where are the girls?” Gate asked, snatching a rifle at random and joining me as we followed the soldiers.

“I don’t know! I’m not even sure where Savannah is. I think she was getting an x-ray.”

“She’ll be safe with Phillip.”

We pressed our backs to the wall before rounding the corner which led to the lobby.

The rat-a-tat-tat of semi-automatic fire rang through the air, and I could just make out several of our guys taking cover behind furniture before returning fire.

I hoped he was right. I hoped the girls had the sense to lock themselves somewhere.

The dragon roared for release.

It would be so easy if I could just let him go and tear through the room, taking two or three of them out with a single sweep of my wings. They would think twice before charging in on innocent, unwitting people again—if they lived to think about anything at all. But even a dragon was susceptible to that sort of firepower. We weren’t immortal.

Savannah.

I only had time to picture her in my head before rushing out to try and kill some of these bastards.

The lights flickered on and off, thanks to the gusting winds outside, but it was easy for a dragon to see in the dark.

Several of them had taken cover behind the front desk, the tops of their heads barely visible over the ledge.

I crouched behind an armchair and wished like hell it was a more substantial piece of furniture. As if stuffing and foam would stop a bullet.

I could only hope their eyesight was worse than mine in the dark as I aimed over the top of the chair and fired into the reception area.

Blood spattered the white wall, and one of the heads disappeared, then another.

I heard screams, more gunfire, and the smell of blood spread through the air like a cloud.

Two of them barreled through the lobby, covered by another pair of shooters, and managed to make it through without injury.

I wanted to go after them but didn’t want to leave myself vulnerable, either.

A round whizzed by my ear close enough to make it ring.

I pressed myself closer to the floor, peering out from beneath the chair.

I caught sight of several pairs of dress shoes—not the boots so commonly worn by Mary’s team and certainly nothing worn by members of the clan.

I fired at them, and when their owners fell to the floor, I shot anything I could possibly hit.

“Got her! Tell Antonio! I got her!” The man who shouted down the corridor nearly crowed in triumph as he brought out his trophy.

She hobbled on her cast, almost hopping on her good leg as the blood-stained bastard led her by the arm.

I’d kill him, too.

Close behind them came Ainsley, Leslie, Martina and the others, herded by three additional armed men.

Gate made a strangled sound from his position only feet from where I watched the horror unfolding.

“Hold your fire.”

The voice was clear, in command of the situation. Or so he thought. The coward had hidden himself in the office, behind the desk where I’d killed two of his men. He stepped out, his face twisting in an expression of disgust as he stepped over the bodies in his way. “I have what I came for, and I won’t take her out of here with any injuries.”

“She’s already injured,” the man who held her pointed out.

“Stating the obvious, as always,” Antonio sneered.

I peered out over the top of the chair, watching, straining to hear over the ringing in my ear and the roar of the dragon in my head to release him. I wanted to.

I glanced at Gate, eyebrows raised, but he shook his head.

I understood why when I looked back at Antonio—and the pistol he pointed at Savannah.

“We meet again,” he crooned, as though he were speaking to someone he was in love with.

Or as though he was toying with her. More likely the latter than the former, as I doubted he possessed a soul or the ability to love.

“Leave the rest of them alone,” she spat. There was more power in her voice than I had ever heard.

The look which came over his face told me he’d never heard her that way, either. “Well, well. The cat found her claws. I’m glad.” He stepped closer, until their bodies nearly touched.

She held her chin up, defiant, while he sneered down at her.

Somehow, his linen suit had remained unblemished.

“Glad?” she smirked.

“Oh, yes. I much prefer a woman with spirit. Didn’t you know that? It’s so much more satisfying to break them.”

I’d had more than enough of him by now.

“Leave her go,” I warned, standing with my rifle aimed at his heart.

He only laughed. “You! I should’ve known. You seemed like the most interested when we met. The mouthiest. If you hadn’t been so mouthy, you wouldn’t have made me suspicious. I wouldn’t have had to do any of this.”

He turned back to Savannah with a sigh. “Then again, nobody would’ve had to die tonight if you hadn’t run away. Don’t you know by now it’s pointless to be so stupid?”

“Shut up,” she hissed. “You’re pathetic. You can’t earn a woman’s love, so you would rather own her and break her down.”

“Love?” he sneered. “Never had any time for it. It doesn’t pay my bills.”

One of the men guarding the girls spoke up. “What should we do with these?”

“What do you think?” Antonio grinned, winking. “Then, get rid of ‘em.”

“Don’t you dare,” Gate warned, stepping out from behind the sofa he’d used for cover.

I watched the men around us, making sure none of them opened fire on him.

“Who’s gonna stop us?” Antonio asked, aiming the gun at Savannah’s head. “Don’t take another step. And if any of you fuckers think about firing on me or another one of my men, you’re all dead. The women first. I’ll make you watch what we do to them before that though.”

I had never heard such depravity, had never known it could exist. And Savannah was supposed to marry him. No wonder she had jumped.

The dragon was dangerously close to the surface.

I wouldn’t be able to hold him back much longer. And I didn’t want to. Nothing would’ve pleased me more than watching all of them shit their pants when they saw what they were really dealing with. But there was that gun at her head, a gun that could be fired in the blink of an eye. He might pull the trigger out of sheer surprise.

We were frozen, all of us, watching each other. Waiting to see who would blink first.

The blowing in of the doors took us all by surprise, and several of Antonio’s men ducked with arms raised over their heads to shield themselves from flying glass.

Wind whipped through the lobby, bringing in leaves and flowers which had been ripped from the trees and ground.

I turned my attention to Savannah in time to see her throw her cast-covered arm in Antonio’s face, knocking him off-guard and causing him to drop the gun.

Blood gushed from his broken nose, and he screamed curses at her as he pulled a handful of her hair to hold her in place.

She screamed, hand flying up to his wrist, but he only pulled harder.

I didn’t will the shift to come on. It came on its own—mine, Gate’s, and every other clan member in the room.

I felt my body stretch, unfurl, rise to its full height.

The high ceilings accommodated this. Before ten seconds passed, the room was full of roaring, snarling dragons.

Screaming filled the lobby, rising over the rushing wind.

I reached for the man who’d brought Savannah to us and roared in triumph as his ribs and back crunched in my curled claws.

Tossing him aside like a rag doll, I scanned the room for Antonio. He was all I wanted. The others were taken care of.

There he was. Running away like a coward. I caught him before he reached the doors, picking him up by his legs and swinging him back and forth. He needed to find out how it felt when somebody played with him, instead of being the player.

“Stop! Please! Oh, help me!” he blubbered, his eyes as wide as saucers and his face covered in blood.

Like all men of his kind, he was nothing. Just a bully, an animal, a weak little nobody.

I held him close to my face, sniffing at his blood, wondering how it could smell the same as any other blood even though he was little more than a monster.

He shook, begged, wept, but I only observed without emotion. Like watching a bug under a magnifying glass. He had hurt so many. Killed so many, destroyed so many lives.

I wanted to throw it in his face, but I couldn’t do it as the dragon. I could only watch and listen to his pleas and enjoy them.

Savannah watched, too, looking up at me with wonder and awe and more than a little fear.

The dragon felt her keen attention and deflated a bit.

My consciousness came flooding in, just soon enough to make me hold back from tearing Antonio limb from limb.

She would never forget a thing like that, and it would always stand between us. She hated him more than I did, but there was no forgetting the sight of such brutality.

The glint of his pistol in her hand when a flash of lightning lit the room sent her message home.

I dropped him on the floor, letting him land on his head.

She stood over him, the gun steady as she aimed. “God forgive me for this,” she whispered.

He didn’t have the chance to beg again before she pulled the trigger.