Col leaned against the front window of the cabin. Darkness had fallen but the snow hadn’t let up. Not in the least.

His dragon rumbled and thrashed inside him, still convinced the best course of action was the search. Blind or not, at least they’d be doing something besides just standing in this cursed cabin.

Sefa knew where he was. Why didn’t she return? Was she waiting for him to come to her? Had something happened? Was she lost in this snow with his mate?

“Col,” Kann called from behind him.

Col ignored the lion shifter and continued to watch out into the blackness.

“Col?”

“What?” He knocked over a small side table next to the window. The splintering wood soothed the seething dragon beneath, but only for a brief moment. His dragon wanted to kill. He wanted to kill. To destroy.

“You should eat something. We leave as soon as the storm stops.” Kann held out a golden loaf of some kind of bread.

He had no desire to eat. His stomach clenched and rolled at the thought. All he needed was Naomi. Life would continue for him only after he had her back safely in his arms. If that was even possible. “Eat then. I am fine.” He turned back to stare out the window. “Leave me alone.”

Col stood at the window for what seemed like hours.

The others moved quietly around, behind him. Even Tor had gotten up from the couch and eaten a little bread. His wounds had closed and were healing nicely. In a few more hours nothing would remain but long scars, a permanent reminder of Sefa’s claws.

“Why are you here? Why did you seek me out to begin with?” Col asked, looking away from the blackness outside for a moment.

“We are a tribal people, Col. Our entire culture. We survive together, or not at all. This was drilled into us as younglings. Now we have lost our whole world. We have all lost our families and friends. We are in this new world with no support. No way to know if what we are doing will call attention to us. Or put us in danger. No way of knowing if the natives on this world are like us or not. At least the old magick followed us through and we can speak their language.”

Very true. If he hadn’t been able to speak to Naomi, it would’ve driven Col mad. He was very grateful for the old magick of Reylea.

The old stories, passed on from generations ago said that a magick-bender cast a spell on all of Reylea. Everyone with Reylean blood could speak any language spoken to them. It took a few minutes. Enough words had to be spoken first, but it worked without fail. All the tribes spoke different languages, but after the magick had been cast. Everyone could speak…everything.

Even here in this world, it’d continued for them. Naomi’s language had come to him. If there were other languages in this world, he’d be able to assimilate them as well.

“Is it not strange for you to drop all the disagreements? Unless it was the time of the gathering, none of the tribes ever came within several miles of each other. Rarely did even our hunting grounds overlap.” Col watched the darkness outside through the corner of his eye.

“Of course, it’s strange,” Saul said from his seat on the floor next to the wood stove. “It does not mean that it is not the right choice. We will not survive out here alone unless we just let our animals overtake us and live as beasts. Your mate is proof of that. There are things in this world we do not understand. So much exists here that did not on our world.”

“Saul is right. We need a human to instruct us about the people here and their machines.” Kann said the last word like it was painful.

Col agreed though. The technology Naomi had shown him so far was unlike anything from their world.

“Hunting and fighting isn’t the right way here. We must change our ways. We must learn,” Kann wrapped up what was left of the loaf of bread. He left the kitchen and returned to sit opposite Saul near the wood stove. His shoulder had also stopped bleeding. The wounds had closed, and the scars would be minimal.

“The weapons the humans use are strange and dangerous.” Tor pulled himself into a more upright position on the couch. “We will not be successful here if we don’t help each other. How can we protect our future mates and children without a tribe?”

Col raised an eyebrow at the tiger shifter’s comment. He hadn’t considered that far into the future. More mates. Children.

Would the children be shifters? Or would they be like Naomi? Human?

“Do you think we will be the last of our kind?” Col asked, keeping his tone low.

The other males met his gaze with silence. Obviously, they hadn’t considered that possibility yet. Neither had he, until just now.

“You don’t think our children will be shifters?” Kann asked, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “I’d never considered that. Not that it matters. You found a soul mate. That means Fate’s magick can find us soul mates as well. We will be patient. If our children are not shifters, then that is what Fate wishes.”

“Listen,” Tor said.

Col turned his attention to the tiger shifter. “What?”

“The wind,” the tiger responded.

He turned back to the window. The snow had slowed. It hadn’t quit, but it was enough to see a difference between the earth and the sky. If it continued to die down, soon it would be a still landscape and he’d be able to use his excellent vision and sense of smell to track.

“Wait a few more minutes. See if it quits completely.” Saul rose from the floor. He crossed the room to stand next to Col at the window. “If it does, we can shift and track from the ground, while you fly overhead.”

His body vibrated with the need to move. To fly. To seek his mate. His dragon thrashed and fought for control. Fire burned in his veins. He would scorch the entire countryside if it helped him find Naomi.

He did as the lion shifter suggested. They’d cover more ground together than he could alone. “Thank you.” Col’s voice was gruff.

“I bled for your mate,” Tor said, totally serious, “I think that qualifies us as family. My brothers would be so jealous if they knew I could call a dragon brother.”

Col’s heart clenched. He’d never had a brother. He and his sister had been the only children of his parents. Tor’s claim moved a part of him deep inside. His sister had died. Tor’s brothers were gone, most likely dead.

They were truly alone in this new world. No one would understand them better. No one would be able to watch their backs better. They did need each other. Now, he needed them. Naomi needed them.

“We are Tribe.” Col’s tone firmed. “Family.”

Tor and Kann stood, moving to the door as well. “Family,” they said together.

“Let us go get your mate, Son of Li’Vhram.” Tor extended his arm.

Col clasped his wrist and nodded.

It was time. He couldn’t wait any longer.

He released Tor and opened the door. The air was bitter, but the snow had calmed. The night was still and cold, lit by the familiar green and pink colored lights in the sky. Naomi had already told him it was a phenomenon called Aurora Borealis.

“I still haven’t gotten used to the magick that flows through this sky at night,” Kann grumbled. “It feels as though Fate herself is watching me.”

“It is not magick.” They continued to walk together down the steps into knee-high snow. “Naomi said they are just lights caused by the magnetic poles of the planet.”

“The what?” Tor said.

“Do not ask me about their science. I merely repeat what Naomi said,” Col answered.

The others nodded in agreement.

A moment later, Col stood facing two lions and a tiger. Kann and Saul were on the bigger side for an average Reylean lion shifter. Their shoulders were at chest height. Their fangs, upper and lower, extended past their lips. The manes around their neck and shoulders made them look twice as big as they really were.

Tor’s tiger had the same oversized fang teeth, but no mane. Nearly every shifter on Reylea had them. Claws and fangs were the key to survival.

Without them, death would come quickly.

Instead of the lions’ tawny golden coat, Tor’s tiger was bright orange with a white undercoat and black stripes that helped him blend into the jungles of Reylea. Here, he was like a beacon. He wasn’t as tall as the lions, but just as muscled and perhaps a few feet longer.

The big cats growled low and stretched their massive bodies. They waited for him. They were Tribe, family now, but they’d silently put him in place as their leader. At least for now.

Col shifted and let out a loud trumpeting cry into the now-clear night air. His dragon roared and then he swung his head down toward the cats. His body was enormous comparatively, but they were still formidable enemies—allies now.

Sefa would die today.

Col had been flying for several hours. The scent trail was getting stronger. The female dragon wasn’t hiding, and he could pick out Naomi’s light floral scented soap on the edge of the wind.

They were heading due south toward the high snowcapped peaks. Better hiding for a dragon. Flight negated the difficult terrain, but it would be problematic for his companions below.

He banked and turned, scanning the ground hundreds of feet below him. The three cats were still moving at a breakneck pace, churning through the snow and up over the foothills below him.

With allies, Naomi would be protected on the ground while he ended Sefa once and for all.

The Aurora Borealis floated and twisted around him as he flew. It’d been strange when he’d encountered it the first night. Naomi had assured him it was harmless and merely a light in the sky, like a flame without heat.

Sefa’s scent was stronger now, but still, nothing. No movement in the sky or on the ground except for the three cat shifters. Further and further they traveled. The air became thinner and clearer. The cats below had slowed a little. To his surprise they were doing an excellent job of keeping up with his pace. He wasn’t flying at full speed, but he wasn’t lazing along either.

A darkness shadow above him caught his eye, however not fast enough to evade Sefa’s dive. She was using his own move against him. Again.

Her shoulder caught his back just above his wing base.

Col roared and fell from the sky. One of his wings still worked, but it wasn’t enough to stay airborne. The aggressive move had left Sefa in a free fall also. He watched with arrogant satisfaction as she struggled to slow her descent only a short distance from him.

They would both hit soon.

The ground was rising fast, but nevertheless he would survive the impact. Likely, they both would. The snow cushioned his fall more than he’d counted for, allowing him to recover his feet.

Col lunged to where the female dragon lay sprawled and dazed.

The three cat shifters were circling but hadn’t attacked, leaving justice for him to dispense.

She had murdered his family.

She had stolen his mate.

She would die.

Right.

Now.

He spewed flames to blind her and used his strong back legs to launch himself at her. Their bodies slammed together. Her claws sought his belly, but he was faster.

They rolled down a hill, through several groves of trees. Biting and slashing. The wounds Sefa inflicted were shallow and of no account.

Col ripped into her, tearing spikes from her back with his jaws. Her blood was sweet in his mouth. His claws shredded her wings.

She wouldn’t be able to escape or limp away this time.

His jaws clamped down on one of her forelegs and he didn’t release her until the bones crunched between his teeth. She screamed, and his dragon howled for more.

End her.

She rolled away from him and he leaped again, giving her only seconds of a reprieve before breaking another of her legs. Sefa was immobile now. Bleeding and staining the white ground red.

He stood on her neck, holding her down and tore a long gash from her neck to her tail with his back claw. Blood sprayed into his face. Her cries fed his need for vengeance more than justice.

Col’s dragon reared back to strike her neck and finish her when she shifted to her two-legged form. Into a woman.

Surprised, his dragon took a step back.

Sefa was clothed in a red tunic that quickly became soaked with blood from her numerous wounds. Then she spoke, her voice filled with bitterness and arrogance. “You may have won, Son of Li'Vhram, but you will suffer eternally.” Her eyes flashed with anger and satisfaction.

Col held back the death strike and shifted to stand next to her.

What did she mean?

“If your mate isn’t dead yet, she will be before you can find her. I crushed her and threw her at the top of that mountain. You will feel nothing but emptiness and pain for the rest of your long life. You will know I took your mate from you just like your father took away my mother. That my family took everything…” Her breathing slowed. Blood dripped from her mouth. Sefa coughed and spit out more. “You h-have n-nothing…because of me.” Her eyes glazed over and the life in them disappeared completely. Red spread out on the white snow like a crimson cloak.

He was standing in her blood. Could feel the sticky warmth of it as it melted through the snow at his clawed feet. That’s what the attack had been about? His entire family had died because Sefa’s mother had gone mad. Execution had been the only option to protect the tribe. Now Sefa had died for her part in murdering his entire family. For taking Naomi. Killing his mate, but could she be alive? The smallest sprout of hope blossomed in his heart. Sefa had not watched Naomi die.

She could still be alive.

The mountain. She said she threw her to the mountain.

Col turned. The peak in the distance was huge. Higher than any mountain he’d seen in Reylea. It was sharp and jagged, and his mate was there.

Alive or dead. He would find her.