Indignation filled me likefire. “What?”
“It is their way,” Ruby said simply. “I have no place tojudgethem.”
“Fuck that. I’ll judge them as much as I want. That’s the stupidest thing I’ve everheard.”
Angrily, I turned around and beat my wings hard, letting my rage fuel my muscles. What Ruby just told me was like a fairytale gone wrong. It was wretched andawful.
“Where is it?” Iasked.
Ruby’s tone was cautious. “No, Dante. We can’t stopthere.”
I exhaled a plume of fire. “I don’t care what the rules are, I just want to see the damn place formyself!”
She hesitated but said, “Down below. See the stonewalls?”
Immediately, I withdrew my wings and plummeted downwards. Through the rushing wind around my ears, I could just barely hear Ruby sigh in exasperation and follow me. I was glad she didn’t try to stop me. She must have known this was something I had to see with my own eyes tobelieve.
I flared my wings to slow down when I saw the walls. From high above, it looked like a circular ring of stone, just like a piece of ceramic jewelry. But it was nowhere near as beautiful. The sight filled me with disgust. For a dragon, freedom was the most important thing in our lives. I’d heard the same of other large predator shifters - wolves, bears, big cats. But here were wolves living penned inside a cage, like dogs. It wasn’tright.
As I flew closer down, Ruby cautiously called my name. “Dante…”
“I won’t get too close,” I promised. Maybe that was a lie. I didn’tknowyet.
There wasn’t much to see. A normal town, if a bit cramped, stood inside the walls. The people in the streets looked like ants from this distance. I could afford to fly closer, so I did. It wasn’t like they had anything tostopme.
Ipaused.
There was an ant outside thewalls.
Not a real ant, of course. A shifter from insideStoneheartpack.
“Ruby,” I said, “do youseethat?”
With her sharp raven eyes, she never missed anything. “Yes. But I don’t believe it. Why is a Stoneheart wolf outside thewalls?”
“Maybe you werewrong.”
She hummed. “Maybe things havechanged.”
But it became clear that wasn’tthecase.
We both saw it before the wolf shifter did. A huge swarming mass of humans carrying sharp weapons lay hidden in the trees. It was easy to see from our vantage point, but the poor wolf shifter clearly hadnoidea.
My heart skipped a beat. What wasgoingon?
“We should go,” Ruby suggested, but she couldn’t tear her eyes from thescene.
“I want to know what’s happening,” I saidfirmly.
Ruby didn't arguethistime.
I dipped my wings and flew in closer. My eyes narrowed. It was quiet, but I knew it wasn’t calm. After what Ruby told me, there was only one explanation for what was goingonhere.
Those humans were about to kill thatshifter.
But when I laid my eyes on him - that little wolf - something stirred inside me. A small white-blue flame kindled in my chest, a strange sensation I’d never felt before. At first I thought it might be adrenaline - but it was clearly more primal andarcane.
The humans broke their hunting crouches. They exploded towards the wolf shifter, weaponsraisedhigh.
