WHILE LOGAN AND I were in our lovable mate bubble, Danny had been looking at the yellow shimmering magic wall that Eva had built around us.

“Little FYI, we’re going to need an exit plan,” Danny said from the edge of the alley. I could see now that Jeanine was weaving her own magic into the wall, and beside her was Steven, the two other druids from Flagstaff, and a shitload of other scary looking people. They stood beyond Eva’s transparent yellow wall and glared at us as if sizing up their dinner.

Eva growled. “Of all the people you went to, it had to be her.”

I flinched. “Yeah … about that. I asked her to do a spell that would make it impossible for you guys to find me, but I think she did something else. I can’t … shift.”

Eva’s whole body froze and she spun to face me. “Tell me you did not give her your blood.”

Oh shit.

“She did,” Logan groaned, and I turned to face him with wide eyes.

“Hey! Get out of my head!” I scolded him.

‘Traitor,’ I pushed at him mentally.

He just gave me a look that said, ‘I told you to never give a sorcerer your blood.’

“Oh, Sloane! Honey, you have no idea what you’ve done.” Eva was softer now, approaching me like I was a rabid animal about to attack. Her hands were out and she walked slowly, using a calm voice. It scared the shit out of me.

“W-what did I do?” My voice stuttered as the fear took hold of me.

“A spell bound in blood is permanent,” she said with finality, and the walls of the alley started to spin. Permanent?

Logan stepped closer to Eva. “No. There has to be another way. If she can’t shift, she can’t fight, she can’t fly. She will die.”

The yellow spell wall cracked behind us and Eva looked resigned. “We will deal with this later. I’ll figure something out. There is one way I know of, but it’s dangerous.”

“Umm, Eva!” Danny yelled, his voice jumping up two octaves, and Eva spun with her hands out, throwing yellow magic like crazy, trying to repair the wall.

“Get us a way out of here!” she roared behind us.

Logan reached out and took my hand. “Does your purple magic still work?”

I thought of how I had blasted the druid into the wall and nodded. “I just can’t shift.”

Logan cursed. “Which makes it easier for the druids to catch you. Alright, let’s get out of here and we will figure this out. Don’t worry.”

‘Don’t worry? If I die, you die!’ I screamed into his head.

His eyes went green. “No one is dying. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

We scanned the alley and our eyes fell on a door at the far wall opposite the club. The door said “Bakery” in a pastel blue cursive font. Logan took two steps towards it and shot the lock out, kicking the door open. Eva had thrown some kind of smoke spell, making it impossible for the bad guys to see what we were doing. Sophie was right behind us, gun raised.

Logan went first into the dark room, before declaring, “All clear.” I followed, with Sophie behind me. We were in a bakery; the whole front wall was glass, and I could see one of the druids standing there outside, not looking in the shop, but it was too close for comfort.

“Get down,” Logan hissed, and Sophie and I dropped to the ground and went left, away from the druid and towards the display cases. My stomach growled as the smell of sugary icing hit my nose. Would it be bad karma to steal a donut? I thought to myself.

‘Yes,’ Logan replied.

My eyes widened. This was not going to work. I couldn’t live with someone inside of my every thought. And what the hell, I wasn’t getting any thoughts from him!

‘Eva can fix it. I’m linked to the pack, so I’m used to this,’ was all he told me.

He was? Since when? It hit me then how little we knew about each other.

‘That is something we can remedy with time,’ he said and I groaned. We army-crawled our way to the back and through the kitchen. When we realized we were out of sight, and no one was in the bakery late at night working, we popped up. There was a huge tray of creamy, frosted, ice-pink cupcakes sitting on the table, and Sophie’s eyes met mine and we both smiled. She totally wanted one too. Hah!

Logan called us to the back, and upon further inspection we found a back door that led to another alley, this one deserted and leading to the open street, where we could escape.

“Sophie, get the pack. Have Eva do a blinding spell so they can’t see you guys coming through the door. Sloane and I will bring the car around.”

She nodded and re-holstered her weapon. “You got it.”

Logan took my hand in his, then we started running out the back, where I assumed Logan had a car waiting. As we reached the end of the alley, I saw some cars parked on the street, but didn’t recognize any of the pack’s. I was shocked when Logan pulled out keys and beeped them, lighting up a large stretch limousine. “What the...?” I stood there dumbfounded as Logan waved away my expression. “Don’t ask. We put Danny in charge of getting a car big enough for all of us.”

I grinned, forgetting for a moment the horrible situation we were in. He popped open my side of the door and I got in, shotgun. The second I closed my door, Logan put the car in drive and careened the huge vehicle down the alley, nearly scraping the sides at the tight turn. The limo was newer, with black leather and a divider glass window. As Logan drove us up the alley, I could see most of the pack outside of the back bakery door, and was flooded with relief. I thought back to Steven and something that had been bothering me, something I wanted to ask Logan.

“Logan, that druid. He was inside, and I barred the door with the dumpster, and then he was right behind me. Then when you and Keegan had him up against the wall … he just disappeared.”

Please let him have had a twin brother waiting in the alley or something explainable.

Logan nodded. “Ardan has the power to teleport. They’re wind druids. Steven must be his new right-hand man. Ardan’s power trickles down the druid line and gets more diluted as it goes. The second I saw him vanish like that, I knew we were dealing with a powerful one.”

He lost me at teleport. He’d freaking just said “teleport.” I didn’t know what was crazier, the fact that teleportation was real, or the sight of half a dozen naked shifters in the alley covering their junk with their hands. Logan pulled the limo up to the side door and everyone but Sophie was either fully or partially naked, save for Eva and Danny, who didn’t have the ability to shift. Which was funny considering Sophie was probably the only person who liked to be naked. Instead of watching the alley for threats, she was checking out Ruben’s impressive glutes.

“Get in!” Logan whisper screamed.

Everyone piled in the back and the car sank down a few inches with the weight. I was assuming there were clothes in the back; otherwise this was going to be a long and uncomfortable drive. The privacy panel had been pulled up so that Logan and I couldn’t see or hear anything from the back.

Mentally, I had calculated everyone, and finally figured out who was missing. “Wait! Gear,” I shouted, as Logan began driving the limo off down the alley and back onto the main street.

Logan pointed up to the sky. “He’s been looking out and reporting if anyone was coming near the back alley.”

“Reporting how?” I took a side glance at him.

Logan tapped his head. “I have a mental link to the pack. They can all talk into each others’ minds, but only when in animal form, and I can talk into their minds in my human form since shifting isn’t a great idea for me. Eva did it with magic,” he explained.

Wow. This whole time they had … what had they said about me that I didn’t know about?

Oh. Another thought struck me then. “My car!”

Logan sighed. “Gear will have to get it later and drive behind us.”

I scrambled to get my keys out of my clutch, but Logan laughed. “Gear doesn’t need that.”

Oh. Right.

With nothing left to say, I gave Logan a long look, staring at the strong features of his face. Mate. What a weird and freaky word, and yet … so right. From the moment I met him there had been this magnetic attraction that I kept trying to blame on the heat or every other thing but…

A thought struck me then. “Logan? Did you know that we were mates? I mean, before tonight?” The way he’d almost kissed me in my room that day … some of the things he’d said…

Logan gave me a sultry side glance, eyes half lidded. “From day one. Although I was in denial for a little bit. Might have been because you punched me in the face and nearly broke my ribs.” He winked, and then let his eyes shift back to the road. Oops. I didn’t even remember doing that.

Well, vaguely.

“You caged me,” I growled in defense.

His hand slipped into mine and a contented sigh escaped me. The adrenaline high of being on the run had worn me down and sleep was dragging at the corners of my mind. A soft sliding noise behind me forced my eyes to snap open, and a hand suddenly plopped a feisty mewing Mittens on my lap.

“She’s attacking Sophie,” Eva’s voice called out softly from behind me.

I rubbed Mittens between the ears. “Good girl.”

“I heard that,” Sophie growled, but I could hear her smile. We had reached some kind of bitchy mutual friendship that I was okay with. Besides, she had Ruben to obsess over now, so Logan was mine.

It was silent but I knew Eva was still looking at me. I could see her from my peripherals. The window was still down. I could barely look her in the eye. I felt too awful for betraying her and going to Jeanine.

“Sloane,” she said finally, “if I would have known you were going to run … that you would take the news that badly, I never would have told you.” I could hear guilt in her voice.

I turned to face her, tears welling in my eyes. “I know. I’m sorry. I just couldn’t handle it. I couldn’t handle knowing I was half monster. That I was living in a house full of people who hated what I was.” The car went eerily silent then and I was surprised at who chose to reply.

“You’re nothing like them,” Dom’s deep voice echoed throughout the car.

“Here, here!” Danny called out, and I heard the clinking of glasses.

I turned fully around, eyes wide, to see there was a disco light on in the limo and it was spinning, causing lights to dance across the faces of my clearly intoxicated friends. Each one had a shot glass in hand. “Are you guys getting drunk?” I asked, mystified.

“Operation: Save Sloane, was a success. We’re celebrating,” Keegan said. “Besides, with our metabolism, the buzz will be gone in less than an hour.”

I just laughed and Eva’s hand reached out and grasped my shoulder lightly. She leaned forward and whispered in my ear, “We’re going to see my friend now, honey. The druid I told you about. He’s the only one that can help you now.”

Logan didn’t seem to like that, because his grip on my hand tightened. I stared straight ahead as a lump of fear formed in my chest. Now that she mentioned it, I noticed we were driving away from Arizona and towards San Francisco. Holy shit, I was going to willingly meet and possibly train with a druid. Why else would they be bringing me to him if not to train with him?

‘Don’t worry. I’ll protect you,’ Logan spoke softly in my mind.

I whipped my head to the side and just stared at him. ‘We need to lay down some boundaries for the mind speak thing.’

He grinned. ‘Mind speak, I like that. Eva can make it so you don’t project so loudly. It happened with the whole pack at first. Dom is a closet Prince fan.’

I grinned. Good to know.

‘Just give me privacy until then, please,’ I told him.

He nodded. ‘Unless you try to run away again. Then I’m going to be all up in your mind.’

I smirked and leaned closer, laying my head on his shoulder. My dragon pulsed, sending warmth down my legs as I breathed in his scent.

‘I’m never leaving you again. I promise.’ My heart couldn’t take it if I did. It was the last thing I said to him before I fell asleep, with Mittens on my lap.

* * *

“Sloane!” Logan was shouting, shaking my shoulders. I jolted awake, looking around frantically. I had fallen asleep in the front seat of the limo, and now we were pulled over with the entire pack outside of the car. My side of the car’s door was open and Logan was leaning over me, shaking me.

“I’m awake! What’s wrong?” Then I saw it. Gear’s bird was lying in Nadine’s lap, his wing bent at an odd angle, nearly torn off.

“Should he shift?” Nadine was asking Eva.

“No way! His arm could sever. Stay in bird form, Gear.” Eva pointed a finger at the falcon and then crisped her suit, turning on me.

“You!” She pointed.

I shrank back as if I was being scolded by my mother. “What did I do?”

Eva’s face softened. “You need to tell me everything about that spell Jeanine did on you. I think it was a two-part spell. One part to keep you from transforming and one part tracker.”

At the word “tracker,” my insides dropped and I felt sick. “No,” I said, in denial.

“Quickly! Tell me.” Eva waved her hand and now Danny was standing next to her; he was all ears.

“She had a … a jar and she was putting stuff in it. Umm … a match—”

Eva cut me off. “Tell me it wasn’t a spell where you had to breathe in smoke?” Eva’s face and hands were frozen as she awaited my reply.

I just winced and Eva and Danny both let a curse word fly.

“She didn’t know! It’s our job to teach her these things,” Logan said in my defense, stepping closer to me.

I sighed. “What did I do?” Oh God. Was Gear going to be okay? The look in Nadine’s eyes gutted me.

Eva motioned for me to stand. “Get up, honey. The druid is tracking you and they will be here any moment. I need to remove the spell and it’s going to hurt like the fire of a thousand suns, but it’s the only way I know how.”

Logan stepped in front of me, blocking the car door. “No way! We’ll kill the druid and find another way.”

Keegan stepped beside Eva. “What if that druid brings his boss? That’s right, what if Ardan is on his way and we all die and your mate can’t even shift and fly away? We need to remove the tracker spell. Now!”

I reached out and let my hand stroke Logan’s arm. “It’s okay. I got myself into this. I need to face the reality of it.” I was a major wuss with pain. Like, bump my foot on the edge of the couch and scream like a dying cat wuss. But I would do what needed to be done to keep the pack safe.

Logan sighed, resigned. His body moved to the side, opening up room for me to stand just in time to see Danny turn to Eva. “What are you thinking of doing?”

Eva looked at me sadly and then turned to Danny. “A complete blood eradication spell.”

I could tell from the way Danny winced, every muscle in his body flinched, that this would hurt like nothing I had ever experienced.

“Feel free to just knock me out first,” I said nervously, using humor as my fallback, but secretly hoping someone would just hit me over the head and knock me out for reals.

“You need to be conscious for the spell to work dear.” Her voice held a sadness and I knew she didn’t take pleasure in what was about to happen.

Logan slipped his hand in mine, glaring at Eva, no doubt wanting to intervene.

‘I got this,’ I told him, but his face didn’t change.

Gear’s falcon gave a soft caw and I frowned. “Can we help Gear? Do you need a scale?”

Last time, one of Logan’s scales had fixed Nadine right up, so maybe we could patch Gear first and then hit me with the pain of a thousand burning suns.

Eva was rubbing her hands together to warm them. “Gear will be fine. I’ll heal him next. This must be done now. They’ve been following us ever since we left the club. Gear says they are about twenty minutes behind us. We need to break the spell and get back on the road.”

I looked around. We were in the field of a heavily-treed rest stop and it was pitch black. It must have been the middle of the night.

I dropped Logan’s hand and stepped forward. “Do it.” I flinched, balling my hands into fists and tensing every muscle I had.

Eva looked at me and then at Keegan. “Hold him,” she murmured, and Keegan rushed forward to pull Logan back.

“Hey, what the hell!” Logan yelled, fighting his friend.

“I’m sorry,” Eva muttered, and clapped her hands together loudly. When she pulled them apart, there was a yellow glowing geometrical shape between her palms. “I’m going to cleanse every one of your cells of any magical spell. They will all be broken, including the one I put on you to cover your scent.”

I just nodded, feeling the urge to run. Knowing something was going to hurt and willingly walking into it was against my self-preservation, but I forced myself to stand there. As she held her hands over my head and brought the yellow glowing geometric shape over my face, a white-hot pain seared my skull. A scream tore from my lips and it haunted me to know that it was my own. I didn’t recognize the sound.

“Hold her!” Eva yelled, and suddenly arms were around me, holding me up, keeping me from falling. My sense of smell told me it was Sophie.

“You got this,” Sophie said firmly in my ear as her grip around my elbows tightened.

Eva moved the shape farther down my face towards my neck and the pain intensified. “No, stop!” I screamed, as the searing heat nearly brought me to my knees. A black smoke was coming off of my face, and I had a horrible thought: Was she burning me? I could hear commotion behind me as Logan struggled against Keegan’s hold.

“Eva!” Logan growled, and I knew his dragon was close to the surface.

Eva looked like she was in pain herself, her forehead covered in sweat, her hands shaking. “Danny, ground me,” she called out, and Danny rushed up behind her, placing a hand on each of her shoulders. The moment his hands touched her, he winced.

Blackness was creeping at the edges of my vision as I swayed on my feet.

“Keep her conscious or it doesn’t work!” Eva yelled to Sophie.

Sophie shook me. Hard. “Stay awake, buttercup!” she said through gritted teeth.

My entire head felt like it was being squeezed in a vise, and at the same time like someone had thrown boiling hot water on it. My dragon flared to life then, lending me some of her strength as another wave of pain crash through me. Eva brought the yellow shape to my heart; black smoke was leaking out of my every pore. The burning was causing me to have a full-blown panic attack. Was I going to light on fire?

“What. The. Hell. Is. This?” I said between labored breaths as the black smoke left my skin and floated towards the sky.

Eva moved the geometrical shape down to my abdomen and I whimpered, sagging against Sophie’s chest, pain exploding in my belly. I couldn’t take any more. I couldn’t. This pain was as if every single cell in my body had been cut in half, electrocuted, and then burned.

Eva’s face contorted in agony. “This,” she said with great effort, “is black magic.”

My stomach dropped. I knew it. I knew I shouldn’t have trusted Jeanine. I had been scared and didn’t think things through.

Keegan’s growl from behind me pulled my attention away from the pain for a half a second. “They’re here!” he shouted.

Eva paled. “I’m sorry, Sloane.”

My eyebrows knitted together in confusion. “For wh—?” Pain like I could never imagine exploded in my legs as Eva rushed the geometric shape down the rest of my body, stopping at my feet. Black smoke puffed up so thick and strong that I couldn’t see … and that’s when I passed out.

* * *

When I came to, there was screaming. A lot of it.

“Gear!” Nadine yelled as my eyes peeled open and the mother of all aches slammed into my body. I felt like I’d been hit by a truck and then given the flu for good measure.

“Keegan!” Sophie screamed.

So much screaming. I let my eyes adjust, and what I saw stole my breath. Chaos had descended on this small rest stop in California. I could hardly process everything at once. Logan was in dragon form, his outstretched wings pinned to the ground like a staked tent. At each wing was a druid holding the metal stake, Keegan crouched before Logan, like a sentinel ready to take on Steven—the Irish druid that I now very much wanted to kill.

Nadine was fighting a hunter with her left hand, using a dagger to jab and thrust at him, while keeping Gear’s falcon tucked tightly in her right. She was careful not to further injure his wing, but in the process was having a hard time with the bushy-haired hunter.

My attention was thrown back to Logan when Steven, standing before him, thrust his hands out—Keegan’s wolf was tossed to the side by an unseen force, snarling and growling the entire way. Wind. Hadn’t Logan said he was a wind druid? Keegan landed before a pack of hunters and I could see now that Danny was holding at least a dozen hunters off, while Eva and Jeanine went head to head, throwing yellow magic spells like they were water balloons just off to his side.

This was what it must be like for people in war zones, I thought sadly. So much going on, so many people getting hurt, that you froze and didn’t even know what to process first. I was frozen. It was too much, I didn’t even know where to look. I could hear Ruben’s bear and Dom’s cat growling but I couldn’t see them. It was pandemonium.

Sophie’s blond hair suddenly appeared before me, her face swimming into view. She reached out firmly and grabbed each of my arms, hauling me into a standing position. I hadn’t even realized I was sitting down. My body screamed in protest; the aches were bad but it wasn’t the searing pain from before. Aches I could handle.

Where was Cooper, Dom, Ruben, Roxy? My mind was frazzled and I didn’t know what to do. Apparently, neither did Sophie. “Do something,” she said, and her eyes glowed yellow with the force of her inner coyote.

As if those words alone spurred me into action, my dragon began to rip from my skin. Do something. Me. She wasn’t asking anyone else, because next to Logan I was the most powerful person on our team and I needed to pull my shit together and prove it. I would not let anyone die because of my mistakes—my need to run away from everything. Apparently, my need to breathe in dark magic as well.

Jeanine’s spell had been broken. My dragon could come forth and come forth she did. Faster than ever before, those red pearlescent scales flared along my limbs, and Sophie stepped back with a grin. My bones cracked and my muscles bulked until I was standing on my hind legs, ready to fight.

Sophie approached me with her harpoon lowered. “I’m riding you,” she stated and I lost sight of her behind my wings.

What did she just—? A heavy weight crashed down on my back and I groaned. What the hell did she think I was, a circus elephant?

“They’re going to kill Logan. Fly!” she roared in my ear. Damn, this woman was annoying, but she was right. The Irish druid was throwing red ball after red ball at Logan, and I could feel my own chest searing just watching it. Logan was breathing fire right back at him, but the druid had a shield up and so it was bouncing off and scorching the ground.

‘We’re coming!’ I tried to use the newly formed bond. I still hadn’t fully processed this mate thing but in this case the mind speak would be a benefit.

Logan’s eyes met mine from across the grass. ‘No. Stay safe.’

I growled, kicking up off the ground, trying to adjust for Sophie’s weight.

‘I’m not leaving you. Besides if you die, I die, remember?’

“Oh shit!” Sophie said from behind my shoulder blades. I tried to move my head to see what she was referring to and she nearly fell as I did. “Who brings a school bus of kids to a rest stop at 3 AM!” she shouted, and that’s when I saw it. A giant yellow school bus was driving quite fast into the rest stop, about to see two dragons fighting men with red magic. Perfect. Really a quite perfect way to end this day, traumatizing the young minds of America.

“Screw it. Just get me over the top of them.” Sophie kicked my ribs and I whipped my head back to nip her ankle.

Bitch. I’m not a horse, I thought, and was only sorry I couldn’t tell her so.

“Sorry,” she muttered.

I was hovering about three feet off the ground, constantly slipping too far left or too far right because I wasn’t used to a human passenger. I’d also only flown a handful of times and always under the stress of life or death. I pumped my wings to get myself higher, and then I heard Sophie load her harpoon gun. Her voice was low and deadly. “These arrows are tipped with magic. I can probably kill the minions, but the big guy won’t be fazed. We need another plan for him.”

I nodded, which felt really weird with my big red dragon head that I was pretty sure had spikes on it. I had yet to look in a mirror in this form. So, I needed to lower her in to shoot the druids that had Logan’s wings, and then figure out something special for Steven.

Here goes nothing.

I pumped my wings as fast as I could, trying to keep from tipping so I didn’t throw Sophie off. The druids didn’t even notice us until we were right on top of them. I was about twelve feet high when Sophie loosed her first harpoon. It sailed through the air, right at the druid holding Logan’s right wing, and sank skillfully into his neck, shattering his protective shield like it was nothing. Thank you, Eva; spelled arrows were the shit. The injured druid collapsed to the ground, and that’s when mayhem erupted. Steven looked up and I had barely any time to think before a red ball of fire was hurtling at me.

“Dive!” Sophie yelled and I did. I dove right for him, curving my body so that the red energy ball went over my head and hopefully not into Sophie’s face. I mean, we weren’t best friends, but I didn’t want her killed.

“Sonofabitch!” Sophie yelled, and I heard another arrow leave her gun. This one stuck in Steven’s foot and he roared, face marred with fury. Within seconds he was gone, blinked out of existence. What the hell? I would never get used to seeing that. Logan’s wings were still harpooned to the ground even though it was no longer manned by the druid, who now lay dead on the green grass. The other druid, who had been at Logan’s left wing, had pulled out a red glowing knife and was walking around behind Logan.

“I’m out of arrows!” Sophie yelled and I internally cursed.

‘Druid coming up behind you with a knife!’ I told Logan.

He was pulling hard on the harpoons, but they were only serving to tear his leathery wing skin more, which made him flinch and fall forward, losing balance.

Screw this. I took off flapping like a maniac, feeling that familiar burning in my stomach. I let it heat up, intensify to the point of boiling. I could feel Sophie pinching my back with her thighs to hold on as I struggled to get behind Logan fast enough to take out the druid. The moment I saw him, arm raised with a glowing knife in his hand, the boiling overflowed. With a roar, I streamed fire onto the druid and was surprised to find that it was purple in color and dripping with magic. My aim was a bit off and I scorched part of the ground, and then only half of the druid, but it was enough to make him drop the knife and run backward, rolling to put out the fire.

“Let me down. I’ll unhook Logan,” Sophie said, and I dropped myself slowly to the ground. The second I landed, Sophie leapt off and ran for Logan’s left wing. I walked like a drunk T-rex to the front of Logan so he could see me better and so I could protect him from Steven, if he came back. As I was waddling in my awkward dragon body to get around the front, I saw someone who made me stop dead. Those eyes. They were just like in my drawing, my dream. The dark-skinned man, those honey-colored eyes—the meditating waterfall druid. He was wearing a white tunic top over grey linen pants, and on his wrists were silver cuffs. In each hand was a staff with a glowing orange crystal at the end.

Oh shit.

We were dead. Between Steven and this guy, there was no way we could fight them off.

The air crackled and Steven appeared before me, but this time he wasn’t alone. This time he was with the most god-awful, scariest man I’d ever seen in my life. He stood at nearly seven feet tall, dark brown hair threaded through with grey, slicked back into a ponytail. His body was such a mass of muscle it looked as if he had eaten Ruben for a snack. But it wasn’t the extreme build that had my dragon legs weakening. This man radiated power. Unseen lines of energy were flicking off of him in waves and I could barely stand to be near him. I had the strangest urge to bow my head in submission.

He took one greedy look at Logan and I, then turned behind him to look at the oncoming dark-skinned man with the two staffs. My dream man. We were so dead. Three powerful druids. There was no way we would survive this.

“Isaac!” the big scary man spat, turning to face the oncoming druid, and a tiny thread of hope weaved its way into my heart. The way he said his name was the way I said Sophie’s the night she’d pushed me. They weren’t friends.

“Ardan,” Isaac acknowledged through gritted teeth. Ardan? As in the guy who’d ripped Logan’s arm off Ardan?

Holy mother. This Isaac guy must be the one that Eva was taking us to. The good druid. If there was such a thing.

In a blinding motion, Ardan threw out his arm and a red lightning bolt headed straight for Isaac. But just as quick, he threw up his staffs and the orange balls on top absorbed the lightning. Ardan didn’t let up; the lightning streak wasn’t one short burst, but a long stream of electricity flowing right into Isaac’s staff. Then Isaac brought the tip of the staff into the earth. I saw the red fire brought into the ground and absorbed by the earth. The lighting was reflecting in Isaac’s eyes and they glowed with a reddish hue. It was terrifying.

“Still using your old tricks. It will take more than that to kill me,” Isaac announced over the crackling of the building lightning.

With a sonic boom, Ardan clapped his hands together and the lightning broke off. The force of it threw me backward into Logan. He was human now, having been un-staked and wearing a torn pair of pants. When had he shifted? Sophie had torn the base of her t-shirt to create two strips to tie around Logan’s injured shoulder, while simultaneously giving us a view of her killer abs. Typical. Then I heard Nadine grunt off to the right, and Sophie ran to help her fight off more hunters. Jesus, how many were there and where was the rest of the pack? I tried not to think of anything too dark. That anyone was … dead.

I brought my gaze back to the fight before me. The blast didn’t seem to have ruffled Isaac. He was standing like a sentry with his two staffs outstretched, ready for whatever Ardan had to throw at him.

What caught my attention was Steven. He had slithered away from his boss and was now stalking towards us with a glowing red dagger in his hand.

‘Fly off with Sophie. She’ll keep you safe,’ Logan said, as he stepped in front of me holding a gun in one hand and his green glowing blade in the other.

I started my shift back to human. ‘No way. You die, I die, remember? We stick together.’

I knew that if he hopped on my back I could fly away and we would both survive, but there was no way we would leave the pack. I couldn’t live with that, and neither could he.

Logan looked back at me and growled. ‘Don’t make me cage you,’ he warned.

I was in too much pain to acknowledge that. My body was still recovering from Eva’s little torture session, and I still wasn’t used to shifting. By the time I looked up, Logan had popped off two bullets at Steven’s chest, but Steven dodged one and the other he took in the arm, but he just kept walking quickly at my mate, wearing a maniacal grin. My mate. That word was weird and comforting at the same time.

When I was finally fully shifted, I glanced up to see Ardan being wrapped in the roots of thick branches that had climbed up from the ground, Isaac standing over him, grinning. But then Ardan poofed away with his little parlor trick and reappeared right behind Isaac. The good druid was ready. He spun around, knocking the tip of his staff into Ardan’s chest, tossing him backward ten feet.

With a roar, Ardan produced a basketball-sized globe of red fire and chucked it at Isaac. It was traveling at an alarming rate, and Isaac barely dodged it. Part of the ball clipped his shoulder, the rest dissipating when it hit the ground leaving behind a scorched mark in the earth. I noticed one of the crystals on the staff in Isaac’s right hand dimmed as crimson blood seeped from the wound on his arm.

A grunting noise pulled my attention. Logan had Steven pinned, a green blade to his throat, just as Eva appeared beside me and handed me her long trench coat. “Wear this,” she told me. I numbly slid it on, covering my naked form and nodded to her. Then I reached down and picked up one of the old harpoons that had been in Logan’s wing. I had to let the pack fend for themselves, because Logan needed my help. Maybe together we could take out Steven.

It looked like Isaac was holding his own with Ardan, although just barely and if the good druid weren’t here we would be dead by now. I was going to stab Steven in the eyeball for what he had done to Logan. Stalking closer to the fight, my eyes on the prize, I cursed when the druid suddenly disappeared from underneath Logan and reappeared hovering right above him.

“Logan! Look o—” My warning came too late; the red glowing knife slammed into Logan’s shoulder, up near his neck.

Time went still then. I could hear my breath coming out slowly, louder than it should be, as if all of my senses were hyper aware. My legs went weak as I looked at Logan hunched forward with the red glowing dagger shoved into his back. A searing pain sliced through my heart then as I realized what this meant.

Logan’s green dragon magic began to lift upward from his body, and the burning pain in my chest increased, a pain so raw and unique it was akin to the same grief that had torn me open when my mother passed. My mate … was dying. Anger, fear, and desperation flooded every cell of my being as I ran forward with a cry on my lips.

“Nooo!” I shouted, lashing out with my magic, letting it go wherever it wanted, letting it be free.

A purple bomb exploded before me, saturating everything within a fifty-foot distance, including the trees. Logan, Steven, Ardan, Isaac, they all lit up like purple Christmas trees, then Ardan and Steven blinked out and they were gone. Isaac was brought to his knees, one hand on his staff, the other dug deep into the earth. He was staring at me with those golden eyes, but I cared nothing about any of that right now. The purple haze was fading as I ran, and when I reached Logan I ripped the dagger out of his back in one swift motion. Touching the blade burned my hand slightly but it was minor pain to the gaping hole that had opened in my heart.

Logan fell forward and I heard him grunt. With a little effort, I rolled him over. He was still breathing, but shallowly and wet, rasping as if his lungs were filling with blood. Everything within me screamed in protest. I’d just found him, I’d barely gotten to know him, and now … we would both die.

Logan looked around at the forest beyond me, and then at my face, as if he was having trouble focusing. He reached up to touch a piece of my red hair and trailed it between his fingers. “I dreamed about you,” he rasped. “Before I met you, I dreamed of this hair.” He trailed his fingers over my eyelids as tears leaked from the edges. “These green eyes.” His thumb then skimmed my cheek and found its way to my lips. “These lips.”

I couldn’t bear it any longer. If we were going to die, we might as well die kissing. I’d only gotten to kiss him once, and all it did was make me want more. A lifetime of more. I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his as his hand came up around my neck and pulled me closer with surprising strength.

I felt something pull inside of my chest and squeeze my heart. It was happening. He was dying and I was dying with him. I reached up to touch the scruff at his face as a numbness spread throughout my body.

He pulled back slightly, moving his lips to my ear and whispered, “You were worth the wait.” With those final words his hand slipped from my neck and his head crashed backward as the life left his eyes. I couldn’t speak, couldn’t breathe.

The tightness in my chest increased until I was sure I was having a heart attack, then with a pop the pressure eased and purple magic flared from my upper body and lurched into his. Some of his green dragon magic was hovering just above his body. Now it began to settle back down as if magnetically pulled by my purple essence. I was about to sit up and adjust my position when a deep voice above me spoke.

“Don’t. Move.” My eyes flicked up to see Isaac watching me cautiously with those golden eyes. I froze, looking down again to see my magic had encased Logan. His own green magic was leaking out and merging with mine to make the most beautiful oceanic teal color I had ever seen. Hope burst inside of my chest.

“Can I save him?” I asked Isaac. I didn’t know if he would know the answer, but I had to speak it out loud to someone.

Eva’s voice called out from behind me. “They’re mates,” she told Isaac.

I could see now that the entire pack was assembling around us. Nadine looked injured but alive, Gear still in his bird form and clutched to her chest. I continued to brace myself awkwardly over Logan as the purple and green magic danced and pulsed between us. Isaac bent down low and took a whiff of Logan’s hair. Okay. Weirdo. Then he stood.

Isaac addressed the pack: “His soul still remains. You know what they say about dragon mates, don’t you?”

I heard Sophie reply, and was grateful she wasn’t dead: “They’re bound to each other. If one dies, they both die.”

Isaac gave her a once over and shook his head. “Wrong. The legend says that in order to kill a dragon mated pair, you must kill both. For as long as one lives, the other will survive.”

Just then, Logan took in a huge gasping breath and I burst into shocked tears. The purple haze was thinning out now, and Logan’s shoulder seemed to have stopped bleeding.

“You’re alive,” I told him, smiling as the pain and numbness that had once claimed my body faded away.

He looked up, and Isaac peered down directly on top of him. “Welcome back.”

Logan frowned, confused. “Who are you?”

Keegan swam into view just as I sat up fully. When I registered the limp red fox in his arms a strangled sob left my throat. Keegan was limping, holding Cooper’s fox in his arms. The red fur was nearly all black with ash and soot. Like he’d been burned.

“Coop!” Sophie screamed throwing herself forward and crashing onto her knees.

Logan’s eyes were pinned on Keegan’s, his breathing coming in and out rapidly. Keegan simply shook his head as Danny walked up behind him.

“I couldn’t save him.” Danny said resigned.

Sophie was sobbing into the ground, pounding on the grass and Keegan’s jaw was clenched so hard I thought his teeth would snap in half.

Oh my God. Cooper was dead. The gentle giant with the twelve-inch beard… was gone.

The way his little fox form lay so limply in Keegan’s arms, the alpha’s fingers clenched in his fur. It tore me in two.

“Those druids will be back.” Was all Keegan said.

Logan groaned as he sat up fully, never taking his eyes from Keegan’s.

“Coop.” Logan finally said ignoring Keegan’s warning and tears sprung from my eyes at the misery in his tone. It was a goodbye.

“Alright. Everyone on the bus!” Isaac broke apart our mourning and pointed to the yellow school bus in the parking lot. That was his bus? Keegan looked at Eva, who nodded.

“This is my friend I told you about. He has land where we can go to heal and recover,” Eva told them.

How the hell did Eva know so much about this man? Who in the hell was this man? I didn’t care right now. I only cared that Logan was alive and that Cooper was dead. I couldn’t process it yet, that we had lost one of ours. Keegan started barking orders for everyone to get on the bus, and handed Coopers lifeless fox off to a grieving Sophie who took him to the bus. Then Keegan pulled the trusty tweezers out of his pocket and waved it before Logan. Logan sighed, and I helped him stand fully as he thrust out his hand to Keegan; black scales formed on his arms while the rest of him stayed human. Keegan plucked three scales and handed one to Eva. “Gear first,” he told her, and she nodded, running off to find Nadine and the injured falcon.

I looked around, surveying the carnage. Blood, dead bodies, and scorch marks littered the ground.

“I’m gonna get Mittens from the limo. I’ll meet you on the bus,” Logan told me in a scratchy voice, emotions still raw from the loss of Cooper. He reached down to place a soft kiss on my lips, holding my gaze.

‘You saved my life with that weird purple magic,’ he mused.

I gave a sad smile. ‘Guess you can’t call it weird anymore.’

‘It’s purple. It will always be weird,’ he replied, and I relished having him so close, breathing in his scent. It was like a balm to my saddened soul.

“Are you sure about Mittens? I can get her.” I didn’t want him overextending himself.

He nodded. “I’m fine.” Then he walked off, and that left me and this weird druid, alone. Isaac was just standing there waiting for me to acknowledge him. I turned to look at him and he nodded.

“You’re a dream walker. I know most dragons have the capability, but I saw you. You visited me in my meditation.”

My face went red, because that sounded all kinds of weird. “Yeah. Sorry.”

He shrugged. “I’m sure you can’t control it. Just like you couldn’t control that purple blast of magic that made me feel like I’d been kicked in the balls.”

My eyes went wide as I winced. “Ouch, really?” Oopsie.

He grabbed his junk and nodded. “It was very effective, but I need to teach you to control it better. Hone it. Give it a purpose. Harness your druid power.”

I swallowed hard. “No offense, but I don’t really want to learn the ways of the druid. I’m a skyborn and that’s enough for now.” I’d had enough weirdness to last me a lifetime and I hadn’t even begun my training with Logan yet.

Isaac nodded. “Understandable. But you will. I’m not like those monsters. I don’t use dragon magic to gain power. I borrow from Mother Earth, and so will you.”

The way he was speaking, with such finality, it was annoying and scary. “Oh yeah? Why’s that?”

He grinned, his straight white teeth and dimpled cheeks making him look ten years younger. “Because I’ve been waiting a century for one of your kind. Together we can kill Ardan and take out the druid line forever.”

My pulse skyrocketed. “How?” To be honest, that’s all I had wanted to do since I heard of these crazy monsters, but Ardan seemed way too powerful for only two druids to take on. Hell, he’d just commanded red lightening from the sky and could disappear and reappear at will!

Isaac stepped closer and pulled his sleeve up to show me an intricate tattoo on his upper arm. “Because our powers are bound now. I am a master druid, and you are now my apprentice.”

Druid say what? I stared at the tattoo, confused, until he tapped my shoulder. Looking down over my left shoulder, Eva’s coat had slipped down leaving a bit of the flesh there exposed. I gasped at what I saw. An intricate Celtic tattoo covered my entire left shoulder cap. The ink was slightly green and it looked like it had been there forever.

“The hell is that?” I shrieked, trying to wipe it off; the marks looked identical to his.

Isaac smiled. “Initiation marks. The Earth has chosen you, as it chose me. Together we will end this war.”

Oh shit.

“But …I…” I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t want it. I didn’t choose it. But it was there, right on my shoulder. Did I want to deny something that could bring an end to Ardan? An end to having to live on the run and fighting for our lives all the time? I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t deny Logan and I the freedom we so desperately deserved. This man was powerful. He’d held his own with Ardan. Maybe if we teamed up, we could take him out.

“Teach me,” I said, and Isaac grinned.

He nodded. “Together we will make the Earth safe for all skyborn, and in turn all of the humans they are bound to.”

My brow furrowed. “You mean just Logan and I?” The way he said all the skyborn sounded weird.

Isaac stepped closer, bringing a scent of earth and tree sap, and lowered his voice. “No, I mean all of the skyborn. There are dozens in hiding all over the world. The Earth shelters them from being found, but not for long.”

My stomach dropped, my body went numb as shock ripped through me. We weren’t alone.

* * *