“If anyone walks in, just start shooting,” Logan ordered and Domnodded.
Yikes. I hoped Danny and Eva were aware of thatrule.
Logan looked at me next, tweezers inhand.
Right.
I set my staff on the ground and quickly stripped my clothes, letting them pile onto my shoes. Didn’t want to get hay and dust in my undies if I could helpit.
My dragon was excitedly slithering around inside of me. I hadn’t shifted in a long time; it felt unnatural to be human for too long, like I’d lost a part of myself. Letting her free now felt so …necessary.
The cracking of bones had Dominic looking over his shoulder for a slight second. Everyone was curious about skyborn, even those in our own inner circle. We weren’t allowed to shift for fear of signaling the hunters, so this was a rare sight for all of them. Especially Logan. He’d likely never stood in a mirror and watched himselfshift.
“She’s fast,” Keegan surmised to my right. I’d forgotten he was there, watching me the whole time. If he wasn’t gay, I might care. Probably not though. I’d learned to not be so self-conscious in a pack full of shifters who were naked half thetime.
“She is,” Loganmused.
I guessed I was a fast shifter compared to the rest. Must be my druidheritage.
The moment I was fully shifted, Logan walked towards me with thetweezers.
‘Take four,’ Itoldhim.
He frowned.‘No way. Toomany.’
‘I’ll be fine. I’m half fire druid,remember?’
I’d forgotten how much it hurt to get one of these pulled until I felt the cold metal of the tweezers and the scale ripping away. It wasn’t like loose skin or even hair. It was as if someone was ripping out a fingernail. I tried to keep my dragon from whining, but a strangled noise came outanyway.
“Sorry, love,” Logan whispered, and then came rip numbertwo.
Mother—!
“Two’s enough,” Logan told Keegan, but Ichuffed.
‘One more. We need it,’ I toldhim.
He looked at me and sighed.‘One more. That’sit.’
When he ripped the third one out, I stumbled away from him involuntarily. My dragon probably thought I was crazy for letting him cause us pain. Mate or not, we needed some space. Logan dropped the red pearlescent scales into a smalljar.
“Alright, shift back and let’s get the hell out of here!” Logan called out to me. Didn’t need to tell me twice. The place on my neck where he had ripped the scales was burning like a mofo, and knowing druids now knew of our location, I was more than motivated toleave.
As I started my shift back, Logan transformed his arm and Keegan took four scales from it, mixing them in the jar with mine. Seven scales. Combined, that jar held five hundred grand. We were set for a good while. I didn’t even want to know how much it was going to cost to feed over forty hungry shifters three meals a day, but we had enoughnow.
“No noise outside. I think we’re good,” Dom said, just as I pulled my shirt over my head and slipped into my shoes. Grabbing my staff, I was ready to get out of here. The druids would be signaled now. We were on borrowedtime.
Keegan pocketed the jar and nodded to Dom. “Lead theway.”
Dominic opened the barn doors, guns drawn. “Eva? Danny? We good?” He walked out a few steps and wefollowed.
Except Eva and Danny weregone…
“What do I smell?” a deep Russian-accented voice said from behindme.
We all spun, and without a thought Dominic just started shooting. There was a man in a black trench coat standing inside of a yellow bubble, Danny and Eva wrapped in magical yellow chains at hisfeet.
The bullets bounced off of his shield and he just laughed. I could see something glinting in his palm. TheEye.
