I realized that the dragons had ceased fighting at notice of Gunnar and Ashley’s arrival. I spotted Dirty Gerty’s giant blue and gold dragon glaring venomously at the wolves, making me frown thoughtfully.

“Is this normal?” I said out loud. “Taking breaks?” Gunnar and Ashley still hadn’t moved.

Achilles chimed in, seeing that I seemed to have calmed down a little. “Not that I’ve ever seen, but there seems to be a lot of confusion. Been a hell of a scrap anyway, though. You should have seen Paradise and Lost and those crimson eyes of theirs. Like death walking. Made some of Gunnar’s wolves look like new pups.”

I nodded, studying the dragons absently. I wondered how my own little scheme was playing out. The deal I had made with those demons. I didn’t relish making good on that payment, but Temples always paid the piper. I chuckled to myself, sensing Callie’s hip brush my shoulder.

I refocused. Maybe my little games were helping with the confusion. A little. Enough.

Tory was rubbing her arms absently, looking anxious as she stared at the dragons. No doubt looking for the Reds. Something about the way she sat told me she didn’t want me to come over.

Her daughters were dragons, and she feared for them. I didn’t see Yahn – but that was understandable since he could turn invisible – or the Reds in the fighting. Luckily, there were only about two dozen dragons in the fight, not hundreds like the wolves.

I turned back to Gunnar in time to see him striding up to White Fang.

Jessie.

It really wasn’t fair since Gunnar was in his bipedal Alpha form and Jessie was in his four-legged wolf form. Then again, the son of a bitch didn’t deserve fair – not for what he had done. Gunnar gripped him by the back of the neck and hoisted him up as if to bite off his head.

Gunnar was a problem solver. Old school.

I realized I was gleefully gobbling my popcorn now, distant ideas and decisions tumbling around my head – things I had only first truly considered in my prison cell – as I waited for my friend to do the damned thing. Everyone around me had gasped, wondering why Gunnar was about to kill an obvious ally of his pack. I waited.

Gunnar snorted and abruptly tossed him aside, cocking his head and snarling. He looked… confused. I grinned, sensing Callie watching my reactions just as closely as the confrontation. I let her. It felt nice to catch onto something before she did.

Ashley turned from Gunnar to the submissive large gray wolf, sniffing the air. She sneezed. Gunnar barked at him, and Jessie – White Fang – finally climbed to his feet, shaking his fur. Then the three of them turned to the Midwest King, who was glaring at Gunnar with pure hatred…

And anticipation.

Gunnar rolled his shoulders twice, and then lazily strolled up to the challenging Alpha. He stopped a pace away from him and just fucking stared with his one eye. The Midwest King snarled. Gunnar didn’t react or respond. The Midwest King raised his claw suddenly, slashing down towards Gunnar’s face, but stopped when Gunnar…

Still didn’t move. I blinked. Spot had tried to make Gunnar flinch? Was that a thing?

Gunnar let out a yawn and I burst out laughing, the only sound on the property. It boomed like thunder, rolling across the lawn bathed in the light of the setting sun. My lawn.

Callie was gripping my arm, eyes locked on the fight. I might have flexed. You always flex when a pretty woman grabs your arm. Man rule number thirty-eight.

The Midwest King’s outrage finally bubbled over, maybe a result of my laughter, and he brought his claw all the way down in one blazingly fast swipe.

But Gunnar was faster. His body was motionless as he shot his claw forward like a spear – those diamond claws glittering in the fading sunlight – and stabbed directly through the Midwest King’s forearm and then retracted just as quickly – almost too fast to believe it really happened. That was it. He didn’t do anything else. In fact, both of Gunnar’s furry arms now hung lazily at his sides, one covered in blood, the other still pristinely white.

The Midwest King darted back two paces, gripping his forearm as he howled in both pain and anger. Gunnar watched him.

Ashley turned away from the fight, studying White Fang – or Jessie – as if he was infinitely more interesting than her husband’s little argument with the new neighbor. Mama wolf had her puppies to take care of.

As if her decision had flipped a switch, every single werewolf on Gunnar’s side… turned their backs on the larger opposing army. They hunkered down in the grass and lowered their heads as if to take a nap.

“Wow. Talk about disrespect,” Callie breathed.

“There was never a fight,” I said, grinning proudly between mouthfuls of popcorn.

The Midwest King saw this wave of disrespect and it was just too much to take. He lunged at Gunnar, snapping his jaws at my best friend’s face. Gunnar took one single perfect step to the diagonal and swung his other paw up, slicing off the Midwest King’s head. Blood fountained in the air as the head spun in lazy circles. Gunnar was already walking away when the head landed a few paces ahead and to the right of him. He glanced at it as if a thought had just struck him.

He looked at his pack, all facing away from him. “I forgot to ask his name. Did anyone catch it?” he asked them, pointing at the head. “That one,” he clarified since they weren’t looking. A few had glanced back, tongues lolling as they panted lazily. “Anyone?”

My voice shattered the silence. “SPOT!”

Gunnar looked at me, waved a crimson claw in gratitude, and then nodded at the severed head, the matter settled.

Gunnar’s wolves were napping, and the Midwest King’s pack looked as if they had been turned to stone. Then they all hunkered down submissively to their new king.

Still, Gunnar didn’t look back for a long minute. He finally turned.

“Anyone who has even one positive thing to say about how… Spot ran things has one hour to leave town. Everyone else, talk to these two.” Drake and Cowan – even though not named, stood and trotted over. “You’re all in charge of cleaning up my best friend’s lawn. Or his butler will kill you and use your hides for fur rugs. I’ve got a few things to take care of. Dismissed.”

Paradise and Lost shared a long look with Ashley before she gave them a brief nod. Then they were following after Drake and Cowan to help.

Gunnar and Ashley were already walking towards us. I saw no sign of Jessie. White Fang.

Dirty Gerty shouted in the silence. “Forget the wolves! Where is your King? Raego led us to this, but he is nowhere to be found. As you die to defend his supposed honor, he hides, unaware – or unconcerned – of your allegiance! Is this what you want in your King? He doesn’t care about you. The Council does!”

A line of dragons hunkered low, eyes narrowing as they snorted flame, standing against Dirty Gerty and the four Council members, looking determined, but not entirely confident.

An ear-splitting roar boomed through the grounds. I glanced up to see Raego – in giant black dragon form – perched on my roof. He spread his wings wide, shooting a geyser of black flame into the sky, fanning the fire with his wings to make it larger. Then he lowered his snout, dark smoke puffing from his nostrils, and leapt off my mansion. I noticed a dozen dislodged tiles sliding down the roof and glared at him as he glided over to land beside my chair. He locked eyes with me and dipped his head. “Family, right?” he said with a disgusted snort, staring at his grandmother.

Dirty Gerty screamed something not very nice about us, but the dragons ignored her, intent to hear what Raego had to say about… whatever it was that had brought them all here. Obviously, where he had been would also be a hot topic, if I were a betting man. But they kept their battle lines just in case. Raego turned to look at her, and something about that look made every dragon grow very still. “I’ll be with you in a moment, grandmother dear…” he snarled, snorting a small puff of black fog that turned a patch of my lawn to obsidian grass.

My lawn!

Her pupils dilated at his words, and she gathered her four Council members around her in a huddle, speaking in low, gruff tones with them.

“What’s really going on here, Raego,” I asked, confident the dragons weren’t about to bring the fight over here. “Or should I say Jessie?”

His lips pulled back in a slight smile, but both of us ignored the gasps of surprise from my friends. “I thought you would find out sooner, but then you took a vacation,” he said. I grunted, shooting him a wry look. “My grandmother came to retrieve a stolen item from your vault.”

I frowned at the way he emphasized the last word. “I don’t have a Vault here…”

“Oh? No vault? How… unfortunate for her. She must have received bad information…” He glanced pointedly at the wolves. “I wonder who else received bad information… Something to bring them all together…” He turned back to me, his black eyes sparkling for a moment. Then he winked. “I guess it’s a good thing we had Tory looking into that theft. As an impartial third party. Good thing the Council agreed to hire her or things might look… suspicious.” He sounded very pleased, but Tory wasn’t smiling. She was staring at the dragons. And she looked pissed.

What the hell? Why had I been dragged into this shit show? I suddenly wished I’d had time to talk to the demons I had hired. It didn’t seem like they had done their job very well.

“I’m not killing your grandmother, Raego.” I said at a sudden thought, leaning closer so only he could hear me. And Callie, of course, since she was practically laying on top of me in her eagerness to eavesdrop. I didn’t tell her to move. That would have been rude.

“You’ve already killed one of my relatives. What’s one more? If I do it, the entire nation could turn on me.” I didn’t need to tell him I had just obliterated his father in Hell. Not that I thought he would really care, but it wasn’t really a good time right now. Maybe later.

“So, you would rather have them turn on me?” He shrugged as if saying I’m open to ideas. “Just… take care of this, Raego. I’m feeling grumpy.”

“Aye aye, Captain,” he purred mockingly. Then he let out a roar, calling off Dirty Gerty’s huddle and motioning her over to come explain herself.

I rolled my eyes, settling into my chair as I let out an annoyed breath. Aye aye, Captain had been something my employees used to say to me at my bookstore, Plato’s Cave.

This wasn’t over yet, but things had just gotten a lot more interesting.

Because I had remembered the name Jessie when Callie said it. He’d been a worthless employee of mine at Plato’s Cave many years ago. Right around the time dragons began invading my city. I later found out that Raego had been hiding from his father in plain sight, disguised as my terrible employee, Jessie.

Because that was something I had forgotten about a black dragon.

They could shapeshift into… well, anything. Anyone.

And I was pretty sure… Jessie had been doing it for quite some time now.

He was White Fang. I was almost sure of it.

But that brought up an interesting question.

Would the fake White Fang please stand up?