Palin
“Palin?” Sandy clung to him nervously.
“It’ll be okay. I promise.” He gave her a look, hoping she would pick up on what he was trying to say.
I haven’t lied to you yet. I’m not lying to you now.
It would be okay for her. He just couldn’t say the same thing about Rusty and his pack of werewolves. It bothered Palin that he’d been so caught up in his mate that he’d missed that sign completely, but he should have noticed. If he’d known he could have taken care of the problem before it got to this point. Anger spread through him. His mate was in danger because he’d let himself become complacent. He should have questioned more about why Rusty wanted the land.
Now that he knew, it was too late. He was already in trouble, and Rusty wouldn’t hesitate to kill them if it meant he could better protect their secret. Having her farm so close to his was trouble. It would be too easy for her to end up seeing his pack, or hearing them.
“I don’t understand.” Sandy’s voice was quaking.
“They’re werewolves,” he said softly. “Rusty is the Alpha, though that doesn’t say a whole hell of a lot about the pack itself if they bow to him. Probably a bunch of misfits and failures and the like who weren’t good enough for another pack. So he took them in. Unfortunately,” he added as more wolves made their presence known, “there are a lot of those types out there. Which means he’s going to have numbers.”
Palin now counted ten different pairs of eyes, not including Rusty.
“Just let us go,” he implored. “This doesn’t have to get ugly.”
Rusty laughed, and the wolves hidden in the darkness yipped along with him, echoing his amusement. The sound was eerie, and if he weren’t a dragon shifter, would have been terrifying. Sandy clung even tighter to him, though he wished she wouldn’t. Things could change in a hurry, and if they did, he was going to need to be free to move.
“I need you to stay strong,” he said, speaking so softly into her ear that he hoped the others wouldn’t pick up on it. “If something happens, I’m going to need space.”
Sandy looked up at him. He gave her what he hoped was a confidence-boosting nod, letting her know that he had it under control despite the apparent numbers against them.
After all, they were just wolves.
No. You can’t think like that. You aren’t fighting for yourself; you’re protecting Sandy. She’s vulnerable to them. You need to keep her protected at all costs, which means not underestimating the wolves. You’ve fucked up once. Don’t do it a second time.
What a pep talk. He knew how to build himself up, that was for sure.
“We’re leaving now,” he stated when nothing further happened, and started walking directly at the wolves on the shortest-line distance back to the truck.
His arrogance startled them and they backed away at first, but a snarled command from Rusty firmed their lines, and Palin came to a halt with Sandy next to him. One of the wolves stepped forward more than the others, baring its teeth as it snarled at him, saliva dripping from its jaws.
Palin lifted his palm to his face and blew it a kiss. Unbeknownst to the wolf, he sent a tiny swirling ball of gas with his tender affection, using the motion of blowing the kiss to send it at the beast’s snout. The wolf coughed and started hacking violently a few moments later. Dumb beast.
“Rusty, last chance. Let us go,” he said, swinging around to face the pack leader once more. “She’s not yours, and trust me, she isn’t selling. Even you have to know that by know. She would rather fail before she caves in to a mangy mutt like yourself.”
The pack growled almost as one at his insults.
“What are you doing?” Sandy hissed from his side.
He wanted to tell her, but he couldn’t. There was no way they were getting out. Rusty didn’t know that he was seriously outclassed by Palin, and he was so intent on getting what he wanted he would remain oblivious to that fact until the end. So Palin was egging him and his followers on. Making them mad. The more riled up, the more likely they would make a mistake.
Hopefully.
“You’re going to regret those words.” Randy’s eyes were bright blue now, crazed fury entering them.
Werewolves were so predictable. They had horrific tempers and were quick to fight. It’s no wonder they were shunned by the rest of the shifter world. Palin was barely trying with his insults, and already he’d worked their leader into a frenzy. Imagine if he put some effort into them.
“Well listen, you flea-bitten mongrel bastard son of a whore, if we’re going to—Yikes, okay, it’s on!” he yelped as Rusty changed and leapt at him.
CRACK!
His fist connected with the Alpha’s jaw, changing his direction midair and sending him tumbling into a pair of his followers.
Palin spun, palm outstretched. Gas erupted like fire around the pair of them, cutting off the bulk of the pack in a wide arc. Howls erupted from everywhere around them. Several cut off shortly thereafter into pained coughing noises.
“Palin!”
He turned at Sandy’s panicked cry to see one of the wolves, a huge tawny beast, come flying over the gas barrier in a huge leap. The size and confidence of the beast told him it must be one of Rusty’s lieutenants, perhaps even the Beta.
Too bad he didn’t have time to give a shit. Palin opened his mouth and he roared. Not like a bear or even a mighty lion. This was the battle challenge of a full-fledged dragon. The noise picked up the wolf, the grass, any loose debris, and the top few inches of grass and blew them all back through the gas wall like a tornado. Too late he realized his efforts had ripped away half their protection.
But damn it was cool.
More wolves streamed through the opening, but Palin met them head-on. Scales appeared across his body, brilliant emerald green protection that shone brightly even in the flickering firelight.
He swung left and right, but the sheer number of them meant they eventually overwhelmed him, taking him to the ground. Hunched over on all fours as they tried to get at his vulnerable bits, he focused his efforts there, where they couldn’t see.
“Get clear!” he shouted at Sandy.
“How clear?” her voice grew more distant even as he spoke.
Thankfully the wolves seemed to realize he was a major threat, and knew that if they got rid of him they would have Sandy with ease, so for now she was all but forgotten.
“More than that!” he shouted from under the dog pile.
Heh. Dog pile.
“Ow.” He lashed out with an elbow at a wolf that bit down on his face. The creature’s jaw dislocated so badly the bottom teeth swung out and almost poked it in the eye. Yelping, it extracted itself from the pile.
Convinced he had the majority of them struggling to rip him to shreds, and that Sandy was at a safe distance, Palin unleashed the attack he’d been building. Gas swirled up around them and then drifted downward like a massive snow globe that refused to dissipate, obscuring all sightlines.
Immediately the wolves began to howl in pain and flee as the caustic gas melted the fur from their bodies. That was the worst thing they could have done as the corrosive gas poured down their throats.
There was no way he was letting them leave the circle. The last thing Sandy needed to see was the results of his attack. But he was still buried under a pile of the most stubborn. Time to change that. Palin went on the attack, lashing out. Wolves flew away from him. His dragonsight easily allowed him to see the fleeing beasts through the gas. He dashed after the nearest, grabbing it by the tail to pull it back in.
The tail popped off in his hand. “Ew.” He settled for dropping a hammerfist on its head. The beast collapsed and the gas continued to eat away at it.
Turning, he ran round the perimeter of the circle, picking wolves up bodily and tossing them back into the center until eventually all movement had ceased. Palin slowly shrank his circle while increasing the toxicity of the gasses within. Finally he’d achieved his purpose, and with a disgusted wave of his hand dismissed the ball of gas.
From off to one side he heard a gasp. “Where did they all go?”
Palin spun. Sandy was there, unharmed, staring at the near-perfect circle of completely dead ground surrounding Palin. Anything living had been eaten away beyond recognition. Human. Wolf. Even the grass was gone, leaving nothing but dead, unusable soil.
“It doesn’t matter,” he told her, hating himself for what he’d done, but knowing it was inevitable.
Once werewolves pick an enemy, they don’t stop until it’s dead. The only way to stop them was to kill them all.
He started walking over to Sandy, but before he could get there a figure lurched out of the night and grabbed her by the neck.
“One more step and she dies!” Rusty growled, his words slightly slurred from speaking through a swollen jaw. He wobbled back and forth, still unsteady on his feet from the first blow Palin had delivered to his head.
The dragon shifter lifted a hand, pointing a solitary finger at the Alpha. “Rusty, you really, really don’t want to piss off a dragon. You’ve already done that by being a royal ass and uttering threats to my mate. Now you’ve put a hand on her. You have to the count of five—because I’m generous—to let her go. Otherwise I’ll kill you where you stand.”
Rusty’s eyes went wide with fear at the admission that he was up against a dragon. But his hand around Sandy’s neck reminded him of where they were, and he smiled nastily, believing himself to have the high ground.
“One more step and I break her neck. You’re fast, flyboy, but you aren’t that fast.
Palin’s finger was still in the air. Concentrating, he pushed power from his body into the tip of the finger. Gas swirled there he knew, but in the dark of night the tiny ball was nearly invisible.
“One,” he said calmly.
Rusty shook his head. “I don’t think you unders—”
“Two.”
“Don’t be stupid, dragon. She’ll die if you do anything dumb, y—”
“Five.”
The ball of gas suddenly shone bright green before flicking across the distance between them.
Rusty stopped talking very suddenly as a hole the size of a penny appeared in his forehead.
“Close your eyes!” Palin barked as Sandy started to turn to see what had happened as the grip around her neck relaxed. “Don’t look!”
He ran over and picked up his mate in his arms, relishing the feel of her body pressed against his. Combat was a powerful aphrodisiac, and he had to fight down the sexual urges coursing through him. Right now his mate needed him to be strong and stable for her. She was going to have questions. Lots of questions.
Like how he’d just killed a dozen or so wolves—in truth Palin hadn’t even counted—without batting an eye. That was not going to be a pleasant conversation.
“They’re all dead, aren’t they?” she asked as they walked back down the walkway.
“Yeah.”
One or two pairs of orange eyes appeared in the darkness, but one look at his hard eyes sent them scurrying. He was the undisputed master of the pack now, even if he wasn’t a ruler. He’d nearly wiped them all from the face of the earth. Only the latecomers and drunkards were left. They would be of no threat.
“You killed them.” Sandy wasn’t questioning him.
“Yes. Otherwise they would have kept coming after you. They gave me no choice. It’s not the first time I’ve run afoul of werewolves. They’re much more common than anyone thinks. Perhaps too common.”
“You don’t sound upset about it.”
“I’m not. They threatened you. I hold no remorse for someone dumb enough to threaten the mate of a dragon.”
“You seem so convinced of their evil.”
“Not all werewolves are evil. Many are just wanting to exist. I have no quarrel with those. If they leave me alone, I will do the same. But I will defend what is mine, and you are mine,” he finished with a protective rumble that echoed in the night.
He wasn’t just telling her. He was telling the world.
Sandy was his, and anyone who tried to do her harm would have to deal with one pissed-off dragon by the name of Palin.
“Now, let’s go home,” he said softly. “We never did get to eat. I’m starved.”
Despite all that had happened, he felt his mate laugh into his shoulder. He knew everything was going to be okay. It wouldn’t be easy, but in the end she would recover from the ordeal.
“Palin?”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t believe you about Rusty.”
He shrugged. “If I’d not been so blind I would have realized beforehand that they were wolves and I would never have let you go. Truthfully, although I didn’t believe it, I wanted him to be telling the truth about mending fences as well. I know that was wearing on you, and I hoped that maybe this would be the end of it. I am sorry it worked out this way too.”
They reached the car then and she slid into the passenger seat.
“Palin?”
He glanced over at her to see her looking at him. Eyes of the most nondescript brown stared back. There was absolutely nothing remarkable about her eyes, and yet they were also the most beautiful things he’d ever seen. And Palin loved the way she looked at him.
He almost thought he could see love in the depths of her pupils. His soul ached to tell her again that he loved her, but the last thing she needed just then was more pressure. He would have to wait until the time was right, no matter how much it hurt.
“Yes?”
“Thank you. I…” she hesitated. “I really value having you in my life. I trust you.”
Palin stared, caught completely off guard by her admission. For most people that might not have been as big a thing, but for Sandy he knew that to be on par with telling someone they loved them in terms of significance to the person. He didn’t know what to say in return.
“You’re a good person.”
He smiled, reaching out to take her hand in his as he fired up his truck and spun it around, heading back down the drive and to her place.
Just before he turned onto the main road he lifted her hand and kissed the back of it. No words were needed. She understood him.