Footsteps scuffed on gravel, and the blond reappeared, arms full of dry wood. He crossed to them and laid the bundle down.
“I don’t need your help,” Race snapped.
“It’s to keep her warm.” He gave Ash a quick smile, his eyes bright like new copper pennies. The guy fed dry branches into the fire. Up close, he looked younger—until she remembered they, like Race, probably measured years in millennia.
Skaldr drifted closer, and Race continued to shave the timber to a precision point.
“Good to see you are safe, female,” he said, with that lazy arrogance only a dragon could pull off. “You vanished from the cave. It was a bit of a worry?—”
“A bit of aworry?” Ash exploded, shooting to her feet. “You left me in a sky-high cave while she-dragons tried to flame-grill me!” She stalked toward him, her fists clenched, fury funneling through her veins. “If Race hadn’t shown up, I’d be charcoal?—”
She lashed out, but Race caught her wrist a breath before her fist met Skaldr’s jaw, his grip like iron.
“He put me in danger!” she shouted, struggling against his hold. “Now, you’re stopping me, because he’s your bloody friend?”
“No.” His voice dripped ice. A ripple of black scales flickered across the bare planes of his abdomen like living shadows—enough to hush the cave. “Because I’m gonna kill him.”
The blond shifter slowly rose to his feet.
Race pivoted and rammed his fist into Skaldr’s face. The enormous male lurched backward. A snarl broke free, and he lunged for Race—fists flew, their guttural roars echoing.
Ash stumbled back, heart hammering.Oh, brilliant.Desperate idiots, the lot of them, picking the worst way possible to ask for help—by abducting her.
“By the flames,” the older shifter snapped. “We have bigger fires to worry about than past grievances?—”
“Stay out of it, Attor!” Skaldr barked, swiping at his bleeding mouth before lunging again. He and Race blurred together, each hit faster than the last. With a furious snarl, he smashed a fist into Race’s ribs. He grunted and doubled over, then twisted, bringing his elbow up hard into Skaldr’s sternum. The other man stumbled back and roared.
Ash shuddered as both males swelled, shoulders widening, scales rippling beneath their skin. They tore into each other, the sounds of fists pounding flesh echoing.
“Oh, God—” she gasped as their claws slashed across granite, shards spraying like shrapnel. She knew exactly how brutal Race could be. He grabbed Skaldr by the throat.
“Race, no!” She darted forward.
“Female, don’t.” A steely arm locked around her waist. The blond hauled her back. “Step between fighting shifters, and you’ll end up as mulch.”
“Let me go!” She tried to wrench free, but his grip remained unbreakable. “Race is going to kill him.”
“Then Skaldr deserves the bruising if he can’t hold his own.” He didn’t seem bothered at all that his friend could die. “Besides, they’re holding back.”
“Holding back?” she yelled. “They’re trying to shred each other into ribbons!”
He flicked her a grin before his attention returned to the brawl. “You’ll know it’s lethal when the fire starts. Cave’s still dark, isn’t it?”
Shifters and their bloody warped humor.
Race and Skaldr slammed into the wall, gravel raining down as their talons screeched orange sparks off the granite. Panic cinched Ash’s throat. She’d seen Race behead a dragon just hours earlier—hell, she didn’t need an encore.
“Race,stop,” she shouted.
Skaldr roared, staggering back, with three smoking puncture wounds gouged through his stomach. Blood sheeted between his fingers, clamped over the wounds.
Ash stood frozen, her mouth unhinged.
Race spat crimson, expression feral. “Touch her again, and I’ll finish the job.”
He pivoted, narrowing his eyes, and the blond shifter instantly let her go.
Ash dashed toward Race as his semi-shifted form receded, but then she halted, glancing at the wounded Skaldr, who had collapsed on a rock near the wall.
