As they drove, Lori still felt like she was in a daze. Like nothing was real.

But when he’d asked her to take off his ring, she’d known it was the right thing to do. And just as she’d known what to do when she’d gotten the call about Matt’s death and gone to find Taylor, she would just have to take a leap of faith and try to work out the rest as best as she could.

But looking at Sever, his jaw set, his expression grim with determination as they hurtled down the road in his truck, she was sure things were going to work out this time.

It was easy to tell when he was lying, and when he’d been kneeling in front of her, holding his hand, she’d known he meant every word of what he said.

He loved her. He wanted her.

And after they found Taylor they could work the rest of it out. After all, what else was a lifetime for?

In a surprisingly short amount of time they reached the edge of the Cleaver’s homestead, marked by a dilapidated wood fence and a rusty signing warning “Private Property: Trespassers Will Be Shot”.

Ominous.

Sever slowed slightly, then drove until they reached the edge of a large clearing dotted with old trees with a semicircle of houses surrounding a central point. All of them looked old, and a small handful of people milled about, not seeming too interested in anything at the moment.

Sever quickly and quietly hopped out, came to her side of the truck, and helped her down. Holding her by the hand, he led her behind a gigantic oak with gnarled branches.

“Stay here. No matter what you see, just trust me.”

She wanted to protest. Taylor was her family. Her responsibility. But if what Sever had said earlier was true, then she really had no idea what she was dealing with. But did he?

“I promise.”

“I’m going to go get Taylor back. I love you.” He turned away before she could answer him, striding toward the center of the clearing, where two men were standing, conversing about something next to a large fire pit, but she couldn’t make out much more than that at this distance.

“Where is he!” Sever barked out, his voice booming through the wide space. He was standing at his full height, and even from behind he was an intimidating sight to see.

“Where’s who?” She heard one man reply. It sounded like John, from before. She’d know that drawl anywhere.

“Hey, he’s not supposed to be here,” Jud said, alarmed.

“Taylor, where did you take him?” Sever responded angrily.

By now a handful of people were starting to gather around them, as more started to appear from the doorways of the rickety cabins.

And judging by the looks on their faces, outsiders were not at all welcome.

Not surprising, given the reception she and Taylor had received.

“What, that little stray? Hopefully he got the right idea and ran for it like his old man did way back when,” John replied.

Jud just giggled maniacally, muttering something unintelligible.

“If you don’t tell me what you’ve done with him, you’re going to regret it,” Sever practically growled, a deep animal-like sound that sent a tiny shiver up Lori’s spine.

She’d seen him be ferocious before. But there was something different in the raw power that emanated from him now.

But whatever secrets the Cleavers had, they seemed determined to keep them to themselves.

“Yeah, I’d like to see you try to do something,” Jud said sarcastically.

At that Sever’s arm wound back, then rocketed into Jud’s face, sending him reeling backward like a rag doll, the impact of the punch so loud she could practically feel it from where she stood sequestered behind the tree.

Jud rolled along the ground for a second, kicking up dust as he went, until finally stopping at the foot of a rotting staircase. In shock, everyone gaped for a moment, then turned back to the interloper, rage in their eyes.

“You’re not going to get away with that,” John snarled as the small crowd inched toward an unflinching Sever.

Then with a loud cry, the shape of John began to change, his arms lengthening and his head enlarging, with fur growing everywhere until he was no longer a man but instead a huge bobcat, several times larger than any real one she’d seen before at a zoo or on TV.

Holy shit. Giant cats. In real life.

Sever hadn’t been joking. This was real. Or was it? No, it had to be. She was watching it with her own two eyes.

Then a bright flash sent a wave of blinding light through the clearing, and when her blurry vision cleared, she saw a gigantic, metal hammer in Sever’s hands, ornate and glimmering shades of silver and deep platinum. And on his back, similarly metallic, were two wings, spread wide and glorious.

Dragon wings.

* * *

Power flowed through Sever like water from a broken dam, mixing with his rage and protectiveness all at once. It didn’t matter that the Cleavers pretended to not know about Taylor. He’d seen the evidence of their perfidy, and he was going to tear apart every one of these houses if he had to in order to find what he was looking for.

Granted he wasn’t going to kill the cats, even though as a dragon he very well could. No, he would do what he came here to do, then take the two people he loved far away from the freakish place to somewhere safe.

With a hiss John charged, leaping through the air like a tiger pouncing on its prey. But giant cat or not, Sever had fought far worse, and with ease he hefted his hammer with both hands, swinging it and catching the cat in the side. The impact sent him flying into a nearby tree, but that only seemed to make everyone else angrier.

In an instant, several others shifted, leaping at Sever. With a loud whoosh his wings propelled him into the air, as the bewildered cats caught nothing but the dust left behind on the earth where he stood a split-second earlier.

With a quick glance he saw Lori, still safe behind the tree, watching him.

Safe. That was all that mattered now.

Quickly, Sever went back on the attack, diving down at the cats and batting them away a swing of his hammer. Several dodged, but those that didn’t were sent flinging toward nearby trees and houses.

But the more he seemed to knock down, the more there seemed to be, as the humans that stood nearby began to shift and join in the chase, cursing and charging in a frenzy of claws and fur hell-bent on his demise.

Apparently Citrine had been very right about cat groups behind very insular, and very territorial.

But when it came to Lori and Taylor, Sever could be territorial, too.

He landed, swinging wide and catching two cats with one blow. But a third surprised him, it’s claws biting down hard on the handle of his hammer, long teeth bared white in the late-morning sun. He grunted and wrestled the cat to the ground, and it growled angrily right before he punched it dead center of its face, knocking it away and freeing his weapon from its grip.

Sever made for the sky once more, but felt everything turn upside down as a large paw knocked him from behind, sending him tumbling back to the earth before he could catch his balance.

With a thump, he hit the packed earth beneath him hard. But he didn’t even feel it, between the adrenaline surging through him and his dragon skin protecting him.

“Ha ha ha, try that again and you’ll lose one of those pretty wings of yours,” Sever heard John’s voice behind him.

Sever whirled around to see the biggest cat of all of them, presumably John, his coat a mixture of light brown and sandy blond fur, his murky blue eyes the same as before, marching slowly toward him ominously.

But Sever had made it past avalanches, rival dragons, and even time itself to find his new family, to find his mate. A few pissy cats weren’t going to stop him.

He gripped his hammer, debating whether he should shift or not. The last thing he wanted to do was lose control and burn everything to the ground. Even if he did it protecting his family, he knew a woman with Lori’s kind heart would not approve of murder.

“I don’t think I know what I’m going to enjoy more. Eating you, whatever the fuck you are, or getting a taste of that lady of yours once you’re dead,” John said.

But just as Sever raised his hammer to smash the dumb cat’s face in, he was interrupted by loud roar, followed by a blur of motion from the side that shot out from the bushes directly at John. John was caught even more off guard, and claws and fangs glinted in the sun as Sever made out the shape of a large lion cub, only barely beginning to grow a shaggy brown mane, clashing with a now-enraged John.

He glared at the shape for a moment, trying to figure out what was vaguely familiar about it.

Holy shit. Taylor was a lion.

As shocking as the revelation was, it explained a lot. The Cleaver’s territoriality toward the supposed intruder. They wouldn’t want another cat on their turf. The fur on the windowsill. After Sever and Lori’s argument, Taylor anger must have made him shift. And without the aforementioned knowledge, Taylor must have run away.

Now he was angry, here to fight for his family, and Sever couldn’t be more proud. Even if angry or not, Taylor was no match for the clan’s alpha. Sever would have to do something.

“Stupid lion doesn’t know its place,” John spat out, then swiped a huge paw at Taylor, sending him rolling to the side. Quickly Sever stepped between them, but before he could tell Taylor to make a run for it, the small lion quickly recovered onto its feet, and bolted for the thick shrubs from whence he came.

“Go after him Jud. Teach him a lesson he’s never gonna forget,” John ordered, standing on his feet as Jud and several other cats made to chase after Taylor.

That was it. These cats couldn’t be reasoned with. Sever needed to make sure he taught these bastards a lesson they weren’t going to forget.

Instantly, the energy flowing inside Sever grew outwards, his body shifting into its dragon form, pure platinum everywhere, incorruptible and impenetrable.

“Holy shit, a D…d…d…” John stuttered as he stared upward.

“Dragon,” Sever growled.

He turned to the side and breathed in front of Jud and his group just as they were about to chase after Taylor, and a long sheet of pure metal cascaded upward in front of them, thirty feet high and running for a hundred yards, stopping them completely in their path.

“Going somewhere?” Sever asked. In anger, Jud whirled around just as Sever swiped one huge claw at the now-tiny cat, sending him flying backward like a toy into a nearby tree.

Served him right.

At John’s command a number of the cats leapt in attack trying desperately to gnaw on Sever’s thick metal scales. But it was like trying to cut a tree down with spoons. Useless.

Effortlessly he tossed them away like so many playthings, and those that were sent packing cowered before him, John at the forefront.

With a loud beating of his wings, Sever came back on his hind legs, then brought his front legs crashing down into the ground, making the hard earth around his claws fly upwards as the entire earth seemed to shake from the impact, like a miniature earthquake.

The townspeople a couple miles away were certainly going to feel that.

Beneath him the cats, despite their impeccable balance, struggled to stay on their feet as the earth rattled and rumbled. Thankfully, their ramshackle homes surrounding the clearing stood steady in spite of the force of it, as dust whirled around them from the disturbed earth.

And as the dust slowly cleared, Sever stood above them, threatening any who would dare try to resist.

“Now it’s my turn to make some rules around here,” Sever growled, his voice loud and through the dried trees and bushes, kicking dead leaves up as he spoke. “You’re going to leave Lori and Taylor alone, however long they decide to live here in your sad excuse for a town.”

John stubbornly protested. “But that’s our land they’re…”

Sever raised one claw above them, platinum talons razor-sharp and poised. “We can keep arguing about this, if you want.”

With a few hisses, the cats fled into the bushes, including the clan alpha.

Sever exhaled as he came back to his human form. Facing the metal wall he’d constructed, he raised a hand and brought it down, forcing it back into the earth.

The cats would probably spread rumors about a dragon, but who would believe them? Besides, they were so insular, who would they tell?

He still wanted to convince Lori and Taylor to move out of there.

He looked around him as he walked back to the tree, watching for any sign of Taylor. Raising his nose to scent the air, he realized the boy was gone.

Shit.