“You have to come with me now,” Sever said as his wings began to beat.

Bree’s throat went dry as she stopped struggling, still trying to comprehend what she was looking at.

“Let her go, damn you!” Titus called out, the sound of his voice muffled.

She and Sever both looked to the side, where an inconspicuous pile of tumbleweeds lay heaped up in a little mound. Then, with a loud rustling, Titus leapt from the beneath the pile, covered in dirt and grass and sticks as the tumbleweeds dispersed everywhere, catching in the wind and rolling away.

He was still wearing the same clothes he’d worn this afternoon when she’d asked him to leave, only much dirtier, and he looked furious.

Had he been sitting there, spying on her house the whole time?

Bree couldn’t even be angry with him for not leaving as she’d demanded, because she was overcome with relief at just seeing his face.

And then horror at the thought of Sever doing something horrible to him.

“Run, Titus! This guy’s a monster,” she called out, still unable to free herself from his grip.

“I know,” Titus growled, marching toward them. In a bright flash, a sword and shield appeared from nowhere in Titus’s hands. The shield was large and round, a bright silvery-metallic color, bearing an ornate dragon symbol etched into the center of it. The sword was the same color, with a long, thick blade, and looked both masterfully crafted and sturdy.

And then she saw wings grow out of his back, long and metallic and scaly like Sever’s, but a brighter, more white-silver color compared to Sever’s, regal and magnificent. The wings beat twice, lifting Titus off the ground as he cleared the distance between them quickly and landed onto the ground next to her with a thunderous thud.

Whatever Sever was, Titus apparently was one, too.

Holy shit.

“Let her go, Platinum,” Titus growled.

Sever, who apparently also went by the name Platinum, looked at Titus with a scowl, then down at Bree, a small smirk curling the corner of his mouth.

“If you say so,” he said, suddenly releasing his iron grip on her arm.

Bree, who had still been pulling as hard as she could on him, stumbled backward, losing her footing. As if from nowhere, Titus was there to catch her, flying backward with her in his arms and spinning around to set her down, putting his back and his wings between her and Sever as he looked down at her to make sure she was all right.

She felt completely guarded by Titus, whose scaly wings encompassed her on all sides, like some fallen angel brought to earth to be by her side. She could see anger in his gaze, mingled with relief at seeing her okay.

The same relief she felt, knowing he was okay, too.

“I couldn’t leave,” he said apologetically, running a hand through his hair. “I’ll explain it later, but I—”

His words were cut off by a snarl behind them, and Titus whirled around, raising his shield as Bree caught a glimpse of Sever’s figure above them, coming down with a gigantic hammer in his hands.

The same hammer she’d seen before. Only now it glowed bright blue, an unearthly, ethereal color as it crashed into Titus’s shield, making a deafening clang. Around her, the air vibrated with the horrific impact, and Titus grunted as he held firm.

“Enough talk,” Sever growled. “I’ve waited every second since we were awakened into this damned world for this, Titanium. It’s time you paid for your crimes.” There was a raw, animalistic hate in his voice, in his features, that she’d only seen barely a hint of on the day he’d tried to make a move and she’d turned him down for Titus.

Now she understood this wasn’t even about her, but something much deeper. Something that went way back between the two men.

“Get out of here. Run,” Titus said, holding his shield as he helped her up. She ran a short ways away and ducked behind a small divot in the ground.

A second later, a very frightened Biff joined her at her side as she watched, unable to take her eyes off the sight of the two gargantuan men facing off.

Titus pushed the hammer away and then picked up the sword, which he’d dropped to his side when he’d caught her fall, then paced in a circle around Sever, who still held the giant hammer in both hands. She could see it more clearly now as well, much more ornate and fancy in its design than Titus’s weapons, with a long, engraved handle at the base. But it somehow only made the flattened, enormous blunted head of it even more unsettling.

Their wings, which were drawn behind them, looked like dragon wings from some fantasy movie but in odd metal colors she’d never seen anywhere before.

It was like something out of a dream.

A very confusing, vividly real dream.

Sever charged again, swinging his hammer in a wide arc to the side, and Titus blocked it with his shield more quickly this time, countering with a quick slash of the large blade he wielded as if it weighed nothing. Sever dodged with surprising agility for someone of his size, though. With a shout, he swung again, and this time Titus deflected the blow with his sword and bashed Sever in the chest with his shield.

Sever stumbled from the blow. Even though the shield was made for blocking, Bree imagined it still smarted to be smacked by the giant, rounded object.

Looking frustrated, Sever took to the sky, beating his gigantic wings and leaping into the air above Titus. Titus quickly followed, jetting upward as Sever swung down at him. Titus barely dodged, as if anticipating the move, and kicked Sever in the back, sending him reeling into a nearby tree. Even from the distance she was watching, it seemed she could feel the tree shake from it.

Sever recovered quickly, though, and raised his hammer high above him, swinging it down and knocking Titus’s shield away. The two locked together, grunting as their wings continued to beat the air, volleying for position as they struggled.

Titus released his grip and then punched Sever in the face, hard enough to knock him back. Before Sever could recover, Titus knocked the hammer out of his hands with a powerful swing of his blade. Shocked, Sever glared at Titus in surprise, right before Titus drove the hilt of his sword into Sever’s face, knocking him backward.

Sever plummeted into the ground, landing with a loud thud, as Titus hovered back down to the ground and picked up his shield. With a groan, Sever slowly stood back up.

Unable to keep away from him any longer, Bree crept a little closer, and Titus looked over his shoulder, slightly worried, but not altogether bothered that she was there to support him.

Some of his hair had come loose from his braid, and the long, wheat-colored locks whipped around his face as the wind blew. So handsome. So masculine.

It wasn’t until she heard laughing that she looked past Titus in panic. Behind where Sever was still dusting himself off, she saw an indiscernible shimmering, followed by two men appearing above the ground and landing on it in unison.

Both were almost as equally large as Titus. One had long, golden hair that looked like something from a shampoo commercial and haughty, refined features. The other had short, white-silvery hair that was spiked in different directions. And even though his countenance was more youthful, it was also more menacing, an interesting contrast to his fit, muscular body.

And then with a flash of light, the gold one was wielding a long, finely made sword that was the same color as his hair, and the silver one had one gigantic blade.

“You didn’t think we were going to make it a fair fight, did you, Titanium?” the gold one said, looking down on her and Titus with a sort of smug superiority.

And then all three advanced on Titus, and she felt cold fear go up her spine.

This didn’t look good.

* * *

Titus scowled at the fact that he was now outnumbered three to one. It wasn’t like dragons to fight so cheaply, but as he looked into the eyes of the men standing across from him, he knew this was anything but a joke.

“You’re about to get what’s coming to you,” Dante, the gold dragon, said, swiping his rapier to the side in a hard slash, his way of greeting his opponent.

He remembered these guys from the day they’d come to their village, wanting to recruit Platinum. Telling him he was like them, a noble metal. Taking Platinum out of his life.

But he’d never begrudged Platinum his happiness. Even as the rivalries between the two crews had heated up, Titus hadn’t wished him ill.

So what the fuck was going on?

“That’s right,” Adrien, the silver dragon, said, brandishing a sword that looked comically too big for him. He was the youngest of the crew but older than he looked, probably mid-twenties in human terms. He swung the broad sword in a diagonal slash and then held it over his head. “We’re here to punish you.”

Titus put up his shield and backed up, guiding Bree backward so when he rushed to meet the opponents, she would be a safe distance away.

“Why didn’t you leave?” she asked, sounding frightened.

“I couldn’t leave you. I have so much to explain. It’s not what you think.”

“What do you mean?”

“One sec,” he said, rushing forward as Platinum lunged with his hammer, swinging it over his head in a huge strike. Titanium dove under to catch it with his shield over him as a huge clang sounded over the area. “Stay back!”

“As if we’d hurt your mate,” Dante said, attacking from the left and barely missing Titus as he rolled out to the right, out of the way. He got to his feet just in time to jump over a low swipe of Adrien’s longsword, meant to catch him on the ground.

Titus struck with his sword in a huge, horizontal swipe that made them all step back, creating even more distance between them and Bree.

Okay, not so bad. He could do this.

“You see, dragons have something called mates,” he explained as he caught another blow of Dante’s and then rolled out of the way of Sever’s hammer. Luckily, each weapon had weaknesses and strengths, and Sever’s hammer was heavy and slow. He blocked a jab from Adrien’s broadsword with a strike of his own, and it resounded with another metallic clash.

“We dragons only fall in love once. With one woman who we meet and know is our mate from the instant we see her.”

He blocked Dante, his sword clashing hard with the rapier as the two men pushed hard on one another, neither gaining ground.

With a huge shove, Titus sent Dante stumbling backward, and Adrien took his place, striking with a lunge. Titus deflected with his shield, glad he was dual-wielding.

“So I was a goner from the moment I saw you in our home, and from then on, I had to win you, whatever it took.”

“Not that you should be focusing on this during your fight,” she said. “But how does that make you different from anyone else?”

He blocked Sever’s hammer with his shield, pushing him backward. “Because I want to love you, not own you. Because I want to protect you, not control you. And because I want to make sure you are always free, not put you in a cage.”

He didn’t have time to turn around and see if his words had any impact on her because all three dragons struck at once, and with a roar, he spun, keeping his shield tucked and swinging his sword in a wide arc, hitting anything he could.

He heard clangs and shouts and somehow managed to make all three of them step back again.

Sever breathed hard, hefting his hammer onto his shoulder. “This is pathetic. How are we supposed to fight you while you’re speaking words of love to your mate here?”

“Make her go,” Dante said. “So we can finish you.”

“As if that’s the reason you can’t take me,” Titus said. Although, for all he knew, they were holding back slightly because they had some sense of honor.

He doubted it, though he knew each was a fierce warrior in his own right. It could be that they were angry and wanted to take him down yet were torn because he was still a dragon, one who had once been merely a respected rival.

“Bree, run, okay? Get back to the house.” He’d told her all he could, and now he would have to fight more seriously.

Dante’s glittering gold eyes darkened. “Attack.” He lunged forward with his rapier, and Titus deflected it with his sword just in time to have to swing back and catch Sever’s hammer with his shield while at the same time clashing his sword against Adrien’s longsword.

They were fierce, unyielding this time, and he felt himself pushed back.

No matter how hard he wanted to fight with his mate watching, he knew he wasn’t a match for three dragons at one time.

He was forced back onto one knee, still defending with his shield and striking back with his sword, when he heard two loud thuds behind him that shook the entire ground.

He turned around to see Liam and Magnus approaching, each with weapons out. Liam, with his short, dark hair and ocean-blue eyes, was wielding his long, ornate ancestral sword with a jeweled hilt, while Magnus, with his long, dark-reddish-brown hair, was carrying a two-handed axe about the same size as Sever’s hammer.

Magnus tapped the handle in his hand. “Let’s make this a fair fight.”

Dante let his rapier rest at his side, flicking his long blond hair over his shoulder. He had a beautiful face, but right now, it was twisted with anger. “Fair, hm? As if what you did to us was fair?”

Liam charged forward with a roar, and his sword clanged as it came up against Dante’s. “I don’t give a shit what you think we did anymore. You’ve attacked my crew mate three on one, and you’re going to get what’s coming to you.”

“As if you could deliver it,” Dante snarled as the two of them broke off from the others, circling.

Magnus went at Adrien, striking with his axe as the other countered, and the two of them began shouting at each other and fighting as well.

Titus turned around to see that Aegis had landed silently beside Bree. He whistled for Biff to follow and then, with a quick nod to Titus, picked Bree up in his arms and flew back to the porch at the back of the house.

Titus gave him a relieved, silent nod of thanks and turned back to Sever, whose dark-grey eyes were still cold with rage.

Now that Titus’s mate was safe, he could finish this.

He felt the change in him start to take place and hoped everyone else got out of the way.