Ripper turned towards the Dragon shifter, who stood stock-still. A grim, horrifying statue far under the high arched ceiling of the Underground Club.

A second Wolf shifter stood next to the Alpha. Kirith had seen him before. He was the one who’d been in the woods the night that his family had died. The one Alpha called Rutger.

No doubt he was some sort of bodyguard. A coward like Ripper always had someone around to watch his back.

Good, thought Kirith. Stay close together, you two. This will make it so much easier to burn you both alive when the time comes.

“How do you want to do this?” he asked as he advanced slowly towards them, torturing his prey with each step just as Ripper had tortured him for so many years. “How do you want to die, Alpha?”

“I warned you, Dragon,” said Ripper. “If you come at me, others will pay for it. If not Luna, then someone else…”

“Luna is beyond your grasp,” Kirith said, combing a hand through his hair. “She’s safe. As for her brother, I will not let you lay a hand on him. You will die here, in this place you illegitimately claimed as your own.”

“There was nothing illegitimate. I purchased this club for my Pack, with our money,” Ripper said from behind the meagre shelter of the wooden bar. “For their own good. For their future.”

Kirith shook his head slowly, never taking his eyes away from Ripper’s. “You pretend you know how to look after your Wolves, but the truth is that you rob your Pack of a future with each day that passes. You steal from them, abuse them, lie to them. You are not worthy of a single one of your Wolves.” His eyes were glowing now, streaks of gold invading the vivid green that lived inside them. His Dragon’s rage was palpable on the air as the scent of charcoal moved in waves around him. “You, Ripper, are hateful.”

The Alpha choked out a nervous laugh. “Oh, I’m hateful, am I? I suppose you’re the sodding Easter bunny? Is that it? Come to give me pats and cuddle me? Or have you come out here in the hopes of melting flesh from bone?” Kirith watched as Ripper quietly nodded to Rutger, who moved out from behind the bar, circling around the space to come up behind him.

“If you think your thick-skulled sidekick can take on a Kindred, you’re even more of a fool than I’d thought,” Kirith said.

“I suppose I’m a fool, then,” Ripper snarled. “Take him out, Rutger. Make it quick.”

But his bodyguard moved too late. The sound of crunching bones echoed through the space and a quick flash of light shot through the darkness. Then the Dragon stood at the centre of the club, charcoal grey, grim as death, flashing massive teeth.

Onyx spikes rose up from his spine, his wings drawing out menacingly from his sides. They were thin, translucent and dark, like leather that had been stretched out over centuries, tarnished by the ravages of time.

Ripper cowered in the face of the beast, his false confidence diminished as soon as he seemed to realize what he was up against. But after a moment he slipped out from behind the bar, and then he too altered. Seconds later his large Wolf stalked into the space.

So, he and the other one were really going to try and fight a Dragon, were they?

So be it.

The two Wolves lunged at Kirith, Ripper living up to his name by going for the Dragon’s throat just as Rutger leapt on top of his back. Kirith flailed this way and that, throwing Ripper aside with one hard swing of his long, charcoal-coloured neck. The Alpha smashed into a round wooden table, splintering its oak top. For a moment he seemed dazed, but he quickly pulled himself to his feet, shaking his head as though he couldn’t see straight.

The other Wolf was still on his back, so Kirith tried to swing his head around enough to pull him off with his jaws. But just as he did so a deep, menacing growl met his ears. Suddenly a second Wolf was springing along his spine, leaping towards the first. Fantastic. The whole sodding infantry was out in force, and apparently they thought it would be fun to go for a ride.

With his massive wings, he tried to brush the creatures off his scales. But it took only a moment to realize that the second Wolf wasn’t there to attack him; instead, he was tearing at the one called Rutger, sinking teeth into his flesh.

Silver, thought Kirith. Damn it, you’re going to get yourself killed.

Turning enough to distinguish between the two, Kirith swept his tail over his back, knocking Rutger to the floor. Silver’s déor leapt on top of him, driving his teeth into his neck. Rutger whimpered in pain as his Pack mate forced him to submit, but Silver didn’t let go. Kirith knew that he would hold him there until the Dragon was safe from harm.

Ripper, who had recovered sufficiently to move again, seemed to forget about the Dragon. He sprinted directly towards Silver, a look of pure fury in his light eyes. The young Wolf had betrayed him, and that was enough to deserve an immediate death sentence.

Kirith spun around to face him, snapping his massive jaws at the Alpha, and grabbed him by the torso. For a moment he considered clamping down. He could have torn the fucker in two with his teeth; could have ended this here and now. But instead, he whipped his head around, throwing him across the length of the Underground Club.

With a horrid shrieking sound, Ripper hit the ground, sliding on his side for twenty yards or so before he came up at the feet of another man.

“Enough!” the man called out, looking down at the Wolf who lay on the ground, panting hard, blood streaming from the puncture wounds at his sides.

Figures emerged from the shadows around the man, advancing slowly, their eyes fixed on the Dragon shifter rather than on the Wolf Alpha. They had no fear of such a creature. No reason to pay him any attention whatsoever.

They were the Kindred of the Dragon Guild.

Lumen, Minach, Aegis, and a few shifters that Kirith had not yet met advanced at once, one of whom looked just like Minach. A few powerful-looking women stood among their ranks, though from their scent, Kirith could tell that some of them were human.

Ripper rose shakily to his feet, the hair on his shoulder standing on end as he swung his head drunkenly between Kirith and the others, as if he was trying to work out how things had gone so very wrong.

Kirith changed back into his human form, watching as a few of the Guild’s men pulled Ripper and his sidekick off towards the vaults. With his heart beating faster than he would have confessed, his eyes hunted the shadows for Luna’s form.

But she never emerged.

It’s for the best, he thought. This way I don’t have to say good-bye.

He stood waiting while Lumen approached, a look of concern on his face.

“Amara got a message from the Wolf Silver,” he said. “But we’d like you to tell us what this is all about.”

Kirith nodded in the direction of the Alpha, who was disappearing around the corner as Aegis and Minach dragged his disoriented Wolf down the narrow hallway.

“That man is guilty of a number of crimes, including ordering the slaying of those closest to me,” Kirith declared. “He’s unfit for this city, for this place. Unfit to lead a Pack.”

Silver padded towards them on his Wolf’s paws before shifting. “Whatever he says, I’ll corroborate,” he announced. “I know about all of it.”

“Very well,” Lumen said, eyeing Kirith. “I’m not entirely happy with the fact that it appears you came to London on a mission of revenge.”

“I understand,” Kirith replied, his chin held high as he awaited his punishment.

Lumen let out a sigh as a brown-haired woman pulled up to his right and took him by the arm. She was human, and Kirith recognized her scent from the underwater flat.

“I’m Neko,” she said, “and regardless of what my mate says, I’m grateful for what you’ve done. I’ve spent my whole adult life ridding London of monsters. I’m glad to know that someone will do it in our absence.”

Kirith nodded solemnly.

“We’ll give the Alpha a trial, of course,” said Lumen. “But for now, he’ll be imprisoned under the Heath, as will any of his accomplices.” He turned to Silver. “You and your sister will be free, of course. What you’ve done for us is valuable beyond measure.”

“Thank you,” said Silver. “Though I don’t quite know where we’ll go.”

“Things will work out,” said Amara, stepping out from the shadows. “For you and your sister.” Her eyes went to Kirith. “For all of you.”

“For what it’s worth, Silver, you and Luna are very welcome here in London. I should very much like for you both to join our Guild. You may be Wolf shifters, but you’ve proven worthy.”

“Thank you,” said Silver, “but I think I’d like to find a new Pack. My parents always wanted me to be an Alpha, and I suspect that’s my destiny. As for Luna…” he glanced at Kirith, “her destiny is hers to choose.”

“As for you,” said Lumen, turning back to Kirith, “what are your plans?”

Kirith looked Lumen in the eye. “Sod my plans. I want the Wolf Alpha dealt with properly,” he said. “You know what he’s done. He doesn’t deserve simple imprisonment.”

“I know, and I’m sorry,” said Lumen. “But we don’t employ mob justice here. If we execute a Wolf shifter in front of his Pack members, we turn London into a centre of shifter anarchy.”

Kirith backed off. “Of course, you’re right,” he said. He looked at the others. “Just do me a favour and promise me he will be punished as severely as shifter law allows, if you convict him.”

“Of course.”

“My work here is done, then.” With that, he turned and walked away. “If you need me to testify, you can find me by the Scottish border.”

“Wait!” called Silver, catching him up quickly as the others conversed among themselves. “You’re not leaving, surely.”

“Give my regards to your sister,” Kirith grunted. “Tell her thank you from me.”

“No. You know perfectly well that you should tell her yourself.”

“No time for that. I’m leaving town for good,” the big man said, marching towards the nearest door.

“You can’t be serious,” Silver said. “You can’t leave without at least saying good-bye to her. What she did for you—”

Kirith stopped and turned to face the young man, clenching his jaw to fight back the torrent of emotions that wanted to break through an invisible dam inside him. “What she did was the kindest thing anyone has ever done for me. I won’t soon forget it,” he replied. “But please explain to her that I can’t see her again.”

She might not understand it, but he was doing this for her. For Luna.

Saving her from inevitable pain.

Saving her from him.

“You have a choice in this life, you know,” Silver replied, his voice echoing through the arched room. “Be a man, or a monster.”

“Monster it is, then,” Kirith said, walking towards the exit. “It’s all that’s left of me.”