Goddess knew I wouldn’t survive if I had his full, undivided attention in a positive way.
“And thirdly…” Slade continued. “We need to get back to the issue at hand: do we wait for the pack to return, or should we head out and track them down ourselves?”
“They won’t be back, my darling dragon,” the witch said with a shrug, and my wolf briefly debated clawing her eyes out. “There are magical boobytraps all over the yard that we triggered upon arrival. My guess is that they’ll disappear for a few weeks to regroup and replan. They won’t take you on with your full pack.”
“Boobytraps,” Hunter snapped, giving the area a sharp once-over, his dominance stronger than ever. His wolf flashed until the gold almost drowned out the storminess of his eyes. “What the fuck does that mean? I felt nothing when we approached.”
She shook her head, pursing her lips. “Sorry, that wasn’t the correct adjective. More like alerts.Security. They’d be alerted if anyone escaped, but it works the opposite way as well. They felt our arrival before we reached the house.”
The entitled alpha looked frustrated with this information.
“What city are we even in?” I asked, trying not to dwell on my fight with Finley, even though his words swirled like missiles in my head. Targeted and painful every time they hit.
“Silver City,” Hunter said, stepping closer to me, the hard expression he’d worn since they arrived finally easing. “The pack who took you make their home here, and two of the alphas are on the council. The entire pack is unusually dominant andconnected within the community. It’d be foolish to hunt them here, in their own territory. We need to plan first.”
I nodded, already agreeing. “They have a lot of magic on their side too, though we never saw signs of a witch.”
Jewels looked around, sniffing the air. “There’s no recognizable essence here. I don’t know the witch they’re using, which is… odd.”
Kellan cursed. “How the hell are these alphas so powerful and magically connected? It makes no sense. We’ve never even heard of them before—I thought we held the most powerful pack spot.”
There was a huff from the dragon shifter. “Only the two with council seats came up on my radar.” He sounded annoyed. “They’re keeping their exploits offline as much as possible, which makes sense now that I know what they’ve been planning.” He turned his piercing green gaze on Kellan. “And we are the most powerful, because I am the most powerful. But that pack is not to be underestimated. They’re dabbling heavily in magic,andhave full use of Reeves Industries tech, which means they’re rich enough to buy the best.”
Hunter growled, inching closer to me again, until I could feel his energy racing over my skin. The urge to lean forward and bury my face against his chest was strong. I wanted to soak up his comforting and supportive presence for a few seconds. “Sounds like we need to be more careful with who we allow to buy from us,” he said, the rumble unmistakable in his tone. “These bastards must have loved usingourtechnology to attack and contain our pack mates. Makes me want to ensure they’re buried ten feet under in a permanent dirt nap.”
Finally,fucking finally,Hunter wrapped his arms around me and hauled me up into his chest. He must have heard Slade’s advice to be gentle, as his hold wasn’t as tight as normal, and I sank against him, realizing how out of sorts I’d been with hisdistance. He’d been in full entitled alpha mode, but I finally sensed a small snippet ofmyHunter returning—the one who had claimed me with a tattoo and who cared for and protected me with every part of himself; who’d saved me from the guard by destroying him where he stood.
My Hunter.
“Were the Rogers pack this powerful when your mom was their mate?” he asked in a low uncertain voice, his mouth close to my cheek as he breathed me in. “Do you have any theories of where their strength originates?”
I had theories alright, and maybe it was the emotional upheaval from my kidnapping, or the way he hugged me so perfectly, but for the first time I was on the verge of revealing the truth.
I wanted to stop hiding what happened to Mom and what I feared would also happen to me.
To trust that we could all work this outtogether.
Taking a deep breath, I lifted my head and said, “Mom’s pack knows exactly what an omega’s power can do?—”
Slade’s roar cut me off, and I smelled sulfur a second before the most eerie, surreal energy washed through the living room.
A force hit me in the side, and still wrapped around Hunter, I was thrown into the yard as the house blasted to pieces around us, raining down debris in its wake.
“Conquesta marina tulula mergan,” Jewels shouted as we flew, her magic cushioning our landing on the icy dirt. Even with her magical help, we still should have felt more impact from an explosion, and I couldn’t figure out why we weren’t injured until I was hauled to my feet by Hunter. We both turned to see a giant, scaled form blocking the side of the house.
Or where the house used to be.
It was Slade. In his dragon form.
Holy goddess.He’d shifted and taken the brunt of the magical attack, leaving the rest of us safe and uninjured. I stepped forward, concerned he’d been hurt, only to pause as I took in the sheer size of his beast.
He was massive, maybe fifty times the size of me, towering high into the sky as the sunlight reflected off his scales, which were mostly green with black-tipped edges. “Slade,” I whispered, gazing up and up and up to find his colossal head.
The dragon’s long neck swung around, his gaze snapping toward me, and I drowned in the depths of sharp, biting green eyes that never blinked as they held me in place. The green that appeared so unnatural in his bipedal form felt just right in this mystical, incredible beast.
My mind whirled, and I swear my soul left my body when his long neck bent to bring massive rows of razor-sharp teeth closer to my face. The heat he exuded left my face feeling raw and slightly singed.
“Slade,” Hunter murmured in a low, soothing tone as he shuffled closer to my back, apparently hesitant to move any faster. “What are you doing? Control your beast.”
