Michelle couldn’t say how long she’d been out of it but from the heaviness of her muscles, she decided it had to have been a few hours at least. Her last memory was of Axel in his majestic dragon form and the ferocity in which he tore through the men crowding her room.

Mate.

Her eyes snapped open at the recollection of what he’d done to her in the moments before the onslaught. Her fingers went to her neck and gently probed the sticky, blood crusted skin. She didn’t know whether she was glad he’d had the foresight or angry because he’d known what was happening.

“He truly is a master strategist,” an unknown male voice mused from somewhere across the room. Michelle sat up and frowned at finding herself sprawled across yet another foreign bed in someone else’s home.

“Who are you?” she demanded. “What do you want?”

Connor Shadowson sneered and sauntered into the small guestroom of his country estate. Handsome in an unrefined, rugged way, Michelle could safely say she found nothing about him attractive or reassuring. She saw a malicious hatred simmering just beneath the surface of his magenta eyes and wanted nothing more than to curl in on herself.

He lowered himself to sit on the side of the bed and she found herself mirroring the same stance as she had last night with Axel. It was that fight or flight response and while experiencing with her mate had been a gross overreaction, she felt like this situation definitely called for it.

Noticing her movement, Connor chuckled malevolently and arched an eyebrow as his eyes swung to the window. Michelle hesitantly turned to see what he wanted her to look at, and inhaled sharply when she saw the iron bars covering her only chance for escape.

“You see, I was prepared for every occasion,” he bragged and then frowned. “Except one.” He flexed his hand and large talons slid through the tips of his fleshy fingertips and with a satisfied chuckle, he raked the bed comforter, rending it to shreds with a mere flick of his wrist. “I hadn’t thought Axel would have the audacity of claiming you before the ceremony. Just imagine how insulted and repulsed Elder Coffer is going to be when I tell him,” he mused and then lifted his hand, inspecting the yellow, cracked claws.

“The Elders are behind this?” Michelle demanded, forgetting all about the fact that she should be afraid. She never could think straight when her dragon anger rose. She’d fought all her life to control those emotions, buried so deeply within her psyche. But now, after learning the monster sitting idly beside her had conspired to not only betray his Prince but also kill him in cold blood, she didn’t want to stop the impending change.

The first sign of her shift came in the form of a strong wind, erupting out of the still, stagnant bedroom air. It whirled from corner to corner until a huge funnel twisted angrily in the center of the room. Her eyes ignited into dragon-vision, lights exploding like fireworks, each molecule allowing her to see even the smallest dust motes.

She rose from the bed, stretched languidly and headed straight for the center of the big vortex. It was time she took control of her own life and her first step was avenging her mate. She still didn’t know whether he lived or not, but this was the least she could do for him. He’d protected her by marking her, now she would repay the favor.

“Stop,” Connor demanded and lurched from his perch to grab her arm. But by the time he’d managed to so much as touch the skin on her forearm, she already had one foot inside the funnel and the skin-to-skin contact tore the skin from his arm like the peel of a banana. He screeched in a pitch too high for a man and cradled the arm against his chest.

Michelle flicked an unconcerned glance at his openly bleeding wound and smirked as the formerly healthy flesh shriveled and fell to the floor. She knew the wound would eventually take his arm lest he shift and heal it. It didn’t matter that they were of the same element. He’d touched her mid-shift while he remained in human form and that was enough to kill anyone.

Once her entire body was encapsulated within the twirling vortex, Michelle threw her head back and welcomed the change shimmering beneath the surface of her skin. Bones shifted, joints popped as they contorted and twisted. Turquoise blue/green scales erupted across her quivering flesh and her eyes burned internally as their true colors emerged. Normally a bright, beautiful green, they now looked more than a florescence reminiscent of a glo-stick.

She groaned when her jaws opened so far they popped unnaturally, her mouth elongating into a snout complete with twin rows of razor-sharp fangs.

Once her arms and legs were finished reforming, she stood on all fours and experimentally swept her massive tail back and forth, testing its strength. She was immediately overcome with an euphoric bliss and wondered why she didn’t let her true form out more often.

When she caught movement in her peripheral, she remembered her reason for shifting and stepped from the funnel, allowing it to shrink into a small tuft that then floated toward her, rushing in her open maw. The small rays of light entering the partially covered windows refracted off her shimmering scales and cast a disco-ball effect all throughout the room.

She hissed through her open mouth, her long tongue darting out like a snake. Snapping her jaws shut so forcefully a tuft of smoke came from her nostrils, she felt that familiar ball of flame burst in the back of her throat. She was fully prepared to kill him, to roast him like a suckling pig over an open spit. But just before she let the fire emerge, the bedroom door swung open so hard bits and pieces of wood and metal hinges burst through the air.

She turned narrowed eyes on the interloper stupid enough to confront an irate dragon and then she stilled, swallowing the ball of raging flames rolling in her mouth.