Fuck. Ow.
It hurt badly. My muscles strained from disuse and frostbite, but I ignored it all.
“WHERE IS SHE?” My roar shook the chamber. The flame in the hearth flickered.
Pounding feet raced toward the door and I tensed, crouching and growling instinctively, curling my wings around my body. Two figures tried to rush into the door and collided into each other, too big to fit at the same time.
The big, muscled drakens who fought me.
Stupid mistake. I hadn’t made sure there weren’t other threats before letting the world know I was awake. I bared my fangs and snarled at them anyway.
“Come any closer,” I warned, “and I’ll rip your spines out.”
The enormous one—silver and black-scaled, red dreads, and built like a mountain in draken form—looked down at me with bored interest. His name was Canavar.
“Cute,” he snorted. “It’s awake.”
The second, gold-scaled, crossed his arms andlaughedat me. Nasi. “It also threatens.”
My wings flared, the back of my knees hitting the bed. I was trapped against it, with nowhere to go. I didn’t have the strength to fight them, but they didn’t know that.
“I will fight you for?—”
Canavar moved deceptively fast for an opponent so large. He grabbed me by the back of the neck like I weighed nothing and slammed me down onto the stone floor so hard the walls rattled. “ENOUGH!”
I saw stars, stunned.
There was something comforting and familiar about the battle of strengths. I understood it and I respected it. Air blasted out of my lungs in a wheeze I couldn’t stop.
Nasi crouched at eye level, unimpressed as he frowned at me.
“You’ve been awake twelve seconds,” he said mildly, “and you’ve already earned a beating. This is what happens when an unmated male lives alone for too long.”
“I will kill both of you,” I rasped, furious at being talked about like I wasn’t right there in front of them.
Nasi raised a brow. “You can try. It would be a poor way to return Ronan’s favor of bringing you with us.”
“I SAID ENOUGH!” Canavar thundered, shaking me like a disobedient hatchling. My head rattled and my bones shook and in that instant, instincts overpowered me.
My body obeyed and I went still, shocked.
For the first time in years—maybe ever—I obeyed another, and not even from fear. It was a plain, simple shock. I had never met an opponent who could overpower me one-on-one. It was almost a relief.
My pulse pounded like a trapped animal’s. My fangs retracted and I forced my breathing to steady.
Calm. You must be calm.
“Stop being naughty.”
My ears pricked instantly as Perri’s voice floated to me, running into the room as the other two growled and stood between us, the big one tightening his grip on me. Her small voice cut through the room like sunlight splitting a glacier. “Canavar! That’s not nice! Put him down!”
Canavar made a gruff sound and reluctantly set me on my feet. My wings tucked protectively against my back and my ears flattened against my head.
Perri ran toward me, bundled in furs, hair mussed, cheeks pink from the warm air. She held a carved wooden toy in one hand and waved at me like we hadn’t nearly died in a blizzard together. Ronan ran in behind her, panting and in hot pursuit.
“Perri no! You need to eat—” Ronan shut up at seeing all of us.
“Veskor!” Perri chirped. “I’m glad you woke up!” She spun to Ronan. “He was wrestling with Canavar and Nasi! Are you all friends now?”
