Fleur smacked Steele’s cheeks, trying to get him to open his eyes. She wasn’t sure how or why, but she could feel the life draining out of him by the second. It felt like it was draining her too.

“Someone call an ambulance,” she yelled, but there was no way even the best first responders would get here in time. Even if they did, would they know how to save a dragon?

Dax, ran over and slid to her side. “Damn, damn. Why doesn’t he shift and heal himself?”

“Can you help him? I don’t know what to do.” The light from the green crystal the black dragon dropped was fading too.

He shook his head. “I’m a red dragon, not a green, I can’t heal. He was supposed to save my sorry ass if anything happened to us.” He shook Steele’s shoulder. “Come on, man, shift.”

Karla appeared with her FART, furry ass repair tote, handing out clothes to the women who had shifted back to human form and a blanket for Steele. “Here, I’m sorry, I don’t think I have anything else that can help.”

Fleur kept one hand on his wound, keeping the pressure on, and spread the blanket over him with the other. If she could keep him warm until the ambulance came, he would have a better chance.

She swallowed down the acrid taste of fear in the back of her throat. No way a blanket would be enough. She knew basic first aid, and could treat all kinds of illnesses with her medicinal garden, she had to figure out another way to help him. Think, think.

The rest of the women joined them, all in various states of disrepair, clothing torn, scratches and bruises all over their bodies.

“Hey, how come you guys are fully clothed and we’re over her in shreds?” Jordan asked Dax.

“Our shift isn’t like yours. We were gifted the power to move between forms by the White Witch, mate to the First Dragon. The magic allows us to keep our forms, our possessions, and our clothing.”

“I need to make friends with this witch. I go through clothes like there’s not tomorrow,” Emma said.

“Unfortunately, she died about seven-hundred years ago. So, I don’t think that is possible.” Dax waved the girls’ questions off and touched Fleur’s shoulder. “Can you help him?”

“Do you want me to run up and get some of your herbs or the salves? The one you made for my sunburn worked like a miracle. Would they help?” Karla asked.

“Yes. No. I don’t know, they’re for minor first aid, like bug bites and PMS, not for sucking chest wounds.”

Did she have anything on hand that could help stop the bleeding? She did have some wild iris root. That would help with bleeding, but not this much.

“What the fuck happened? Nic, Mom, Ellie, are you okay?” Jake pushed his way into the circle of women and grabbed Nic into his arms.

“I’m fine. But, this guy isn’t.” Nic pointed down at Steele.

Nic’s assessment of the Steele tore at Fleur’s gut. Nic was right. He really wasn’t fine. He was dying and she didn’t have any way to stop it. Shit.

She’d only just met him like an hour ago, and she didn’t understand why, but she could not lose him. Something inside her would break if he did.

“Jesus.” Jake shook his head.

Aric shoved in and grabbed Jordan, kissing her hard and then looking her up and down. “Those don’t look like wolves’ claw marks. What attacked you all?”

“Some sort of black lizard men. I guess they were dragons, but nothing like these two.” Jordan snuggled against Aric.

“Black dragons? What the hell? Did you guys bring some sort of feud with you?” Aric’s voice turned dark, the alpha in him coming out.

Fleur wished they’d all shut up and let her think. Yarrow root? No. She didn’t have time to make a poultice and what would she do with it anyway, pour it straight into his gaping wounds. No. What she needed was a god-damned needle and a whole spool of thread.

Dax stood and shook his head. “They should be here. I’ve never heard of demon dragons in this area. That’s what they are, part demon, part dragon, and all evil.”

“Fucking hell. Just what we need the night before the scenting ceremony. We’ve got wolves coming in from all over for this one, hoping to find mates, and instead they’re going to find god-damned demon dragons.”

“You’re lucky we were here. If you’ve got an infestation of demon dragons, you’ll need our—” Dax glanced down at Steele, “—my help to hunt and destroy them. Unless you want a case of the Bubonic plague on your hands.”

Oh, no. Fleur shook her head, not allowing the tears that were bubbling up there to fall. Even Steele’s friend had given up on him. Fleur couldn’t. She wouldn’t.

The biggest of the wounds she had under her hand seemed to be bleeding less. Olympus above, please don’t let it be because his heart wasn’t pumping.

Her fingers trembled as she placed two fingers on his neck. She was shaking too badly to feel anything. Either that or she would have to admit she couldn’t feel his heartbeat.

“We wouldn’t have this problem in the first place, if you two hadn’t decided to do your dicking around in my town.” Aric stepped up, chest to chest with Dax.

Fleur wanted to tell him to back off, couldn’t they see Steele needed help, not a pissing contest? Bastards.

But, a mere human with a little bit of flower nymph heritage didn’t simply tell the Alpha of the local pack to step off. Not the night before the scenting ceremony where she she hoped to find a mate.

Besides, yelling at the men wouldn’t help Steele. If only she’d studied traditional western medicine instead of botany and herbalism.

“You were supposed to protect our women, not put them in jeopardy. I trusted you with their lives.” Jake pushed Nic behind him and got in Dax’s face.

May Zeus strike them down where they stand.

“We did, and my friend sacrificed his life to protect them.”

That was it. She might lose her chance at going to the scenting ceremony, and she might piss off the Alpha, but she didn’t give a flying squirrel if she did. Not if she could get some help for Steele.

“Shut the hell up, the lot of you. I’m trying to figure out how to save this dragon. Go measure your dicks somewhere else or help me.”

Aric turned his glare on her, the rims of his eyes glowed with the wolf inside of him. Fleur glared right back.

He might be able to intimidate everyone else around him with that look and his inherent power, but just now, he could suck it. “Well?”

“Aric, quit trying to frighten Fleur. She’s trying to save the hotty. And the dragons did fight off a dozen of those beasts before we joined in. We only took out a couple.”

“Fine,” he growled.

The ambulance pulled up, lights flashing, and the circle parted to let them in.

“Shifter or human?” The EMT asked.

“Dragon shifter.” Fleur answered.

The EMT raised his eyebrows, but then nodded. “Okay, we got this. Move aside.”

Fleur gripped her pendant, Steele’s crystal in her hand too, and breathed a sigh, not exactly of relief, because Steele wasn’t out of danger, not in the least. But, maybe it wasn’t completely hopeless now.

With her breath, a green wisp flowed out of her mouth and drifted over Steele’s body.

Whoa. She hadn’t even eaten garlic or onions or anything.

The EMTs raised their hands, not willing to touch this new unknown. One of them glanced at her and shined his pen light at her mouth. “What are you?”

She pulled her lips in and closed her mouth tight. Great, even the medically trained guys thought she was a weirdo. But, right now, who cared, if her unknown level of weirdness helped Steele, she’d take it.

The green breath swirled around Steele’s body and seeped into him. It gathered at his chest and the light intensified.

Jordan knelt beside her, glancing back and forth between Fleur, the EMTs, Aric, and the green swirls. “What did you do, Fleur?”

Jordan grabbed her hand and the squeezed.

Fleur welcomed the support her friend gave. “I don’t know.”

“It’s dragon’s breath.” Dax’s voice sounded awed. He stared at Fleur too, studying her.

She covered her mouth, the crystal dangling from her fingers. Okay, this was getting embarrassing. “I swear, I brushed my teeth.”

The light swirls seeped into the wounds, closing them before everyone’s eyes. The color that had been slowly fading from him shot back up his neck and face.

“Steele?” She reached out, touching his chest with her hand, pressing his crystal to his chest.

He sat straight up and sucked in a deep ragged breath, gasping. Steele smacked his hand over hers and the crystal, holding both tight to his chest.

Both power and joy streamed through her body. He was alive, and so was she. Her senses were flying high. Little wildflowers popped up through the cracks in the sidewalk around them.

The tattoo of the dragon flickered across his skin, scales rippled up his neck and his eyes changed from dark round pupils to elongated with a deep green glow in his irises.

He looked at Fleur and growled. “Mate?”

Uh, no. His fist only tightened around hers. The heat flowing back and forth between them, where they touched, was scorching, but in a good way.

Dax grabbed Steele’s shoulder. “Dude, I thought you were dead.”

“I think I was.”

“We’d still like to take you to the hospital and check you out.” An EMT pointed to the back of their ambulance.

Steele stood, pulling Fleur up with him. “I’m fine now, but thank you. A shift and some sleep and I’ll be good as new.”

“Steele,” Fleur tried to pull her hand away, “I think you should go with the EMTs. You were almost killed.”

“Yes, my little flower, but you saved me. I’m here because of you.”

Jordan, stood and smiled, looking back and forth between Fleur and Steele. “Well, that’s got to be the first case of resuscitation by bad breath.”

Emma giggled and nodded. “Fleur, girl, you might not be a shifter, but, you’ve got some kickass powers at your disposal. That was some next level Wicked Witch of the West stuff you did with those trees. Maybe we should start calling you Elphaba.”

Barbara touched Fleur’s free arm and gave her a little squeeze, grinning at her like she knew something Fleur didn’t. “There seems to be more to our Fleur than any of us knew.”

Yeah, including Fleur herself.