I let out a sound that wasn't a roar but a laugh.I'm beautiful, I thought, catching sight of my tail coated in daggers, venomous green with coal red tips. I flew like silk, turning easily, impossible to catch, too fast and sinuous. I spun over the top ofthe dragon and landed on its back, raking my talons over one wing and then leaping up.
This is why the betas were afraid of their omegas growing wings. We were beautiful, anddeadly.
I flashed under the sun, blindingly bright, bile yellow and lit from within with my fire. I released it into the air, turning circles in greeting to my mate as his huge evergreen body lifted from the ground at last.
Slow, my dragon noted coolly, then grinned as Torion barreled into Worthington, hard enough to make the air quake.But strong, I added mentally, and she purred in agreement.
My wingspan stretched from one horizon to the next, and I spiralled up into the air, warning off the Skybern betas with a roar of fire that made them rear back in shock. I was a slimmer dragon, but long, with strong legs, feline in form and lethal to my prey. I swung my tail and laughed again as it scratched through the wing of a dragon that dared to challenge me. Sensibly, it changed its mind.
A cry of warning from the ground behind me caught my attention, and I noticed the odds in the sky were better now. I twisted and floated down, checking on Torion—he and Worthington were wrestling in the sky, but my mate would outmatch him in a moment—before looking out to the north, where more dragons appeared.
Torion's allies were already here, which meant whoever approached might be a new threat.
I snarled and darted forward, Ronson Cadogan's dragon leaping up from below to chase after me.
Too slow, my dragon cooed cheerfully, delighted to be loosed at last. She'd been patient with me, patient as I considered my future. She'd protected me during Tylane's birth, waited and watched as I'd adjusted. Now, after we'd learned to live with one another in secret observation, we were together. We werefree.
I roared and behind me, unable to catch up, Cadogan echoed the sound.
Only a handful of dragons advanced, but one was especially familiar. Rust brown and massive. Heavy. Slow, slow, slow. I screamed in violent greeting, a sound the color of lightning, and grew faster, flying straight, defensive spikes flaring out from my body.
The dragon—Malcolm—balked, reared up, and beat his wings in retreat. Coward.
I circled the cluster of dragons. They were older, and they had slowed at my approach. I wanted to attack, but I resisted, waiting to see what their business was. Malcolm transformed and he was so small as a man, so weak, it made me laugh again.
"We came to help," he shouted, irritated andnervous. I could taste his fear, and it was surprisingly sweet.
Ronson reached us and transformed as well, nodding once to me as I continued to keep the dragons in line. "Help who?"
Malcolm watched me circling them and swallowed hard. Oh, yes. He recognized me now. Somehow, he knew who I was, and perhaps for the first time since we'd met, he knew he ought to have respected me from the start. Feared me.
"The Alpha of Grave Hills. I may not see eye to eye with the—withhim. But I'll take a man of the Hills over those slimy Skyberners any day," Malcolm said, and then jerked his head to the other dragons. "That's why we're all here. To defend our home."
I grunted, snapped a lick of fire that would heat the air just enough to warn them, and then nodded to Ronson before turning back to the fight. I needed to check on my mate more than waste my time with dragons who flew at the speed of molasses.
Torion was watching me, trying to fight and keep an eye on me at the same time. Foolish. I didn't needhishelp. In fact?—
I screamed as Worthington caught Torion by the wing. He wouldpayfor that.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
TORION
It was hard to focus on the dragon in my grasp when I knew that my mate was running loose and wild, withwings.Without me. Her excitement flavored the air, sharp as citrus but sweet to me, sweeter than the scent of the other alpha's blood as it dripped to the ground below.
It was an old legend that a dragon's blood would nourish the land it fell on, one that had led to too much bloodshed in our history before the alphas were established. I wondered if there were any truth in the story. At least it would mean Worthington was good for something.
It was my fault for being distracted.
I was turning to search the sky for Brigid when I felt the talons shearing through my right wing. I let out a roar in unison with the numbing scream not far away, and my flight faltered. I had one paw on Worthington's chest, and I dug my claws in, but it wasn't enough to keep me airborne. The wound was bad, I could tell already, could see the bright rubies of my own blood in the air, falling. I would nourish the Hills too.
Damn.
Green as bright as a spring shoot, vivid as a creature that warned its predatorspoisonous!, shot through the sky toward myself and the other alpha. Brigid!
Mate!a silky voice called in my head as she neared. I bared my fangs up at Worthington, keeping him distracted, doing my best to tighten my body, kick my back legs into his stomach and do what damage I could, even as we began to sink through the air. I tucked my wings in before he could tear the other and let us fall.
Brigid barreled into Worthington from above, sleek and snarling, tail, talons, and claws all tearing at his wings. We screamed as one, and I thought the sound could've brought a mountain down. Maybe that was how the hills had formed, the old dragons bringing down the world around them in ancient battles.
