For the second time, a strange man was edging towards Flick, assessing his chances of persuading her to go home with him. The problem was that there was only one man in this club that she wanted, and he was nowhere to be found.

The shifter who was now making his approach was almost as big as Dex, but nothing about him appealed to her; not his clothes, nor his stupid pseudo-fashionable hat. She turned her back to him, hoping that her body language would signal something as powerful as a bright crimson Leave me alone, you repulsive bastard light.

But almost as soon as she’d turned away from him, the big man grabbed her arm from behind, spinning her around to face him. Bloody hell, this one was a fair bit stronger than the ferret shifter from earlier. Stronger, in fact, than any man who’d ever touched her.

When she tried to pull away, he drew her even closer, sniffing her hair. Sniffing her, like a blooming animal.

What a gentleman.

With her free hand she drew her knife from its sheath and twisted her torso around to hold it up to his face, showing him its gleaming blade. But it didn’t seem to faze him for a second. If anything, Flick thought she heard an approving moan push its way up his throat. Wonderful. He’s aroused by weapons. The bastard was smiling now, pulling her even closer, encouraging her to press the blade into his chest like it was all some sort of amusing game to him.

“Go on, sweetheart. Do it,” he snarled.

For a moment Flick considered slashing it across his too-pretty face, marring his features as a warning for future victims of his aggressive come-ons. But she could feel a sea of eyes staring in her direction, the club’s inhabitants growing curious to see if a human had the guts to spar with one of their own.

“I thought you and I had an agreement, Eldrich,” a voice growled loudly from somewhere in the crowd, drawing excited sets of eyes. Flick turned her head to see that Dex, the sexy behemoth she’d met a few minutes earlier, was striding quickly towards the bar.

“So we did,” Eldrich replied, his lips curling up in a smarmy grin. “But there’s been a change of plans. I’ve found something that interests me far more than returning to an empty house.” Flick winced as the shifter squeezed her arm hard again. “I’ll leave when this one agrees to come with me.”

“I highly doubt that she’ll ever agree to that,” Dex said. “Just a shot in the dark here, but as I understand it, women who want to accompany men home generally don’t pull knives on them.”

“Yes, well, some women don’t know what’s good for them, do they?”

Flick tried once again to pull her arm free, but Eldrich was too strong for her. There was no hope, not unless she really did ram her knife into his gut.

“Let her go,” Dex said. This time there was no snarl in his voice; it was calm, almost soothing, which only served to make him sound more dangerous.

“Or what?” snarled Eldrich.

“Or I’ll fucking tear your head off and toss it to the lads over there to use as a football.” He nodded over his shoulder towards the crowd that was now gathering behind him. Of all the petty brawls that had taken place during the course of the club’s history, clearly this was going to be the most interesting. Great, thought Flick. I came here hoping not to draw attention to myself and now I’m at the centre of it.

A mocking laugh rose up from Eldrich’s throat, and Flick could see the rage pulsing on Dex’s temples in response. In an instant, her sexy hero had her assailant by the jacket collar and was pressing the base of his spine into the edge of the bar so hard that Eldrich let out a high-pitched wail.

“Feel that?” Dex growled, his biceps hardening to enormous boulders under his jacket as he showed his strength. “That’s your kidneys getting crushed. If you don’t want to have to learn to urinate through a hole in your abdomen, you’ll let go of the lady, as I asked you to do.”

Eldrich’s hand released at last, and Flick pulled herself free, backing away from both men. She didn’t run, though, didn’t hide herself among the sea of protective shifters who now surrounded them.

“You all right?” asked Dex, turning her way and dragging his eyes down her body.

She nodded. “I’m fine. Thanks.”

“Good.”

He let the shifter go, but not before shoving him hard, inspiring a final cry of pain. “Get out of here,” he snarled before turning to walk away.

“I’m going to do it, you know,” the other man called to his back. “I’m going to show them what we are. Everyone in this place will know.”

“Do that and you risk all their lives,” Dex said, spinning around to confront his foe, his eyes turning a startling shade of gold. “And you risk your own. Don’t forget, Eldrich, that I am a Kindred. You’d do well not to mess with me.”

A Kindred? What on earth is a Kindred? Questions overwhelmed Flick’s confused mind as she watched the two men spar verbally.

The light-haired man, the one called Eldrich, pivoted to look at her. His eyes, like Dex’s, were glowing the oddest yellow-green, his skin pulsing with a strange, feral glow, veins throbbing the colour of lava. Flick could sense that he was on the verge of a shift. The question was, what was he about to turn into?

“Do you want to know, beauty?” Eldrich asked, his eyes flashing. “Aren’t you just aching to find out what I am?”

“Not if it’ll get someone killed,” she replied, sheathing the blade that she’d been clenching tight in her fist all this time. The truth was that she was curious, of course. But she didn’t trust this Eldrich character as far as she could throw him.

“It won’t get anyone killed,” the man replied, his tone a taunt. “Dexter here is just being dramatic. He doesn’t understand the power structure. He doesn’t understand who the apex predator around here is. He refuses to take ownership of our destiny at the top of the food chain.”

By now the musicians had stopped playing, and this entire section of the club had gone silent. Hundreds of eyes and ears were attuned to this strange, cryptic conversation.

A potent aroma filled the space, that of two creatures at war. Something in the scent exuded strength and power, yet it wasn’t the scent of two Grizzlies or two Wolves in conflict. The bouquet that swam about Flick’s head was one of raw sexuality, strength, dominance. It seemed wrong to feel so aroused in the presence of danger, but the truth was that she was as turned on as she’d ever been, to see Dex locked in a quiet war with another shifter.

“Come on,” he said, stepping towards her to take her by the hand as he narrowed his eyes at the bystanders, who parted like the Red Sea to let them through. “You and I need to leave here. Now.”

“I don’t think so,” said Eldrich. “She stays here, with me. She’s mine.”

“Excuse me?” Flick asked, her voice tinged with anger as she spun around to confront him.

“My déor has told me you’re mine,” Eldrich growled. “I’m claiming you by rights.”

“I’m not here to be claimed, by you or anyone,” she replied. “Last I checked, you shifters weren’t allowed to decree that a human woman was your personal property.”

Dex thrust himself between her and his rival. “You heard her,” he growled. “She’s not for you.”

“Oh, I suppose you’ll be taking her for yourself then?” Eldrich replied. His eyes were still glowing, sharp canines glinting stark white under the blue lights overhead.

“I’m not taking anyone,” Dex said. “Merely keeping your foul hands off of her. For the record, you need to learn some better pickup lines, Eldrich, you absolute tosser.” He began to walk again, taking Flick along with him.

They’d almost reached the nearest exit when the sound came.

The grim communal gasp of Dex’s fellow shifters told him what had occurred before he’d turned to look, and Flick’s cry of surprise only served to reinforce it.

Eldrich had just unleashed his inner beast.

* * *

Dex swung around to face the Dragon, its ochre-coloured scales glinting tarnished gold under the blue light. Two rows of spiked scale lined his neck like a threatening mane, his face coated in smaller spikes. Eldrich’s déor, like his human form, managed to convey every message other than “Be my friend.”

Preening like a peacock, the Dragon stretched his wings out, forcing his shifter audience to move out of the way or be pierced by the sharp claw-like appendages at his wingtips.

“You irresponsible bloody idiot,” snarled Dex, unafraid. “Do you even know what you’ve done?”

“What the ‘ell is this?” yelled one of the Grizzly shifters, gesturing towards the creature.

“It’s a sodding Dragon,” another man, a Wolf shifter, replied.

“Dragons don’t exist no more.”

“I beg to differ, given the monster standing ten feet away from us.”

The men started to shove one another as Eldrich’s déor looked on, clearly pleased with himself for inspiring such immediate madness.

Dex turned to Flick, whose mouth was hanging open as she stared at the creature. By now most of the shifters had backed away, too afraid to risk proximity to a potential killing machine. A Dragon had more at his disposal than claws and teeth; he had fire. Flames in an enclosed space such as this were a dangerous bet at the best of times.

“I’ll be taking the woman with me.”

Eldrich spoke the words directly to Dex’s mind, isolating the thought from everyone else in the club. “She’s mine, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“Yes there is,” Dex replied out loud, drawing stares from his confused audience, “and for the record, she’s not yours.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Flick, her voice strained with confusion. “You’re acting like he asked you a question. Is he talking to you?”

“He is. Now move,” Dex growled without turning her way. “Get well behind me.”

He waited to be sure she’d followed his orders and moved far behind his massive form. A silvery blue Dragon, even larger than Eldrich’s déor, burst from Dex’s body when he felt that she’d distanced herself sufficiently. His scales shimmered like liquid, his sides heaving in and out. The shifters around the room gasped once again in unison, stunned at the sight.

As shocking as Eldrich’s beast had been, this second Dragon was even more astonishing to the crowd surrounding him. He was larger, more beautiful than the spikey monster who stood facing him. Something about Dex’s déor looked as though it had sprung from some sort of elemental magic, the sky and the sea mingling in his coat of scale like exquisite mirrors of the universe.

Some of the shifters gathered in the crowd knew what they were seeing. This was one of the legendary creatures born of the ancient lines of magical beasts. Never had any of London’s shifters expected to come face to face with such an entity, least of all under the city’s streets.

Smoke puffed from Dex’s nostrils in warning, but Eldrich, too stubborn to heed it, thrust his head forward and snapped his jaws at the other Dragon. Dex immediately retaliated by shooting a bullet of flame at the floor in front of the other déor’s feet. The wood plank burned for a moment then went out, a charred black streak remaining in its place. Warning number two.

A low growl echoed through the room, and Dex found himself hoping that Flick had made her way to an exit by now. If the other shifters were afraid, Dex knew that she probably was, too. This was no place for a human.

He arched his neck, staring down the other Dragon as he advanced, pinning him against the far wall to minimize his potential for damage. “Don’t test me, bastard,” he conveyed silently, narrowing his yellow eyes at his enemy’s. “Don’t even think about it.”

A moment later a low, deep rumble echoed off the walls. But this wasn’t the sound of a Dragon. This was a man’s hostile chuckle. Eldrich had surrendered already, altering into his human form. Dex had asserted his dominance and won their battle without a single blow.

“Just know that I will have the woman,” Eldrich shouted at his enemy. “Not only that, but now that these weaklings know we’ve returned to take the city, I’ll have everything I want. You would do well not to get in my way, Dexter.”

In reaction to the proclamation, the icy blue Dragon shifted back into his human form, his hands balled into stone-hard fists at his sides. “The world of shifters is not for those who abuse power,” Dex snarled. “You will not rule this place, Eldrich, and nor will you dictate any woman’s choice of mate. Remember this: there is no one ruler of Dragons. If there were, it would be a Kindred, not one of your meagre bloodline. Now, I suggest that you do yourself a favour and forget that you ever came here. Forget that you ever met Flick. Leave, and don’t come back.”

“Oh, I will leave. But rest assured that I will be claiming what’s rightfully mine,” the other man promised. As he strode by Flick, he turned and snapped his teeth at her, letting out a dry chuckle.

Then he was gone.