Page 33 of Titan’s Mate

“Raines had a dragon artifact that allowed him to compel other predator shifters to obey him. He tried it on Brandon, but Brandon is one of the strongest alphas I’ve ever known. Even that only let him fight it for a little while, though.”

“Oh my gosh.” Mari was clutching her coffee mug, riveted. “What did he do?”

Brock gave a little laugh. “Brandon bonded the crew right there on the battlefield, in the middle of the fight. He and the twins are like brothers, and Kitty is his mate. With all that love and loyalty pouring into the formation of the crew bond, it overpowered the artifact and destroyed it—along with Raines and the leader of the crows. Squatch was there, fighting Raines along with them, and the bond was even strong enough to pull him in.”

“Wow,” said Mari respectfully. “That’s some powerful alpha mojo.”

Brock shook his head. “No. Well, yes—Brandon is a powerful alpha. But it’s more than that. This crew is as tight as it gets. That ride-or-die loyalty—that love—is its own kind of magic, more powerful than anything. Put that together with all the true mate bonds they have now, and it’s unstoppable.”

Mari sensed a wistfulness in his voice—as if he wanted to be part of that. She wondered why he wasn’t.

And they had new members, too, she realized. The lions must have been invited to join the crew later on. But not Brock? Was that why his wolf was so angry? Or was that anger the reason he couldn’t bond with the crew?

“Anyway.” Brock settled back into his seat. “Brandon thought if he avenged Nick’s death, the poor guy could cross over, but he didn’t. He was there too, that night, and jumped into the crew bond to give Brandon more power. That made him part of them, so he decided to stay.”

At that moment, the soccer ball came flying straight at them. Mari flinched, but Brock had the perfect reflexes of a predator, and reached out and caught it without even spilling his coffee. Nick fixed his eyes on Brock, bouncing back and forth in anticipation, more like a puppy than a cat shifter.

Brock grinned. “Okay, fine, pussy. I’ll take you on.” He put down his mug and turned to Mari. “Want to play?”

“Um. I don’t usually, you know. Run. At all.”

Xióngmāo were probably the least athletic shifters on the planet, and she was possibly the least athletic of the xióngmāo.

“You can be on my team, and stand near the goal. I’ll pass you the ball a lot.”

Nick bounced some more, making panther puppy eyes at Mari.

Totally irresistible. “Okay.” She got up.

Out on the lawn there was a ripping, tearing sound, and a vertical slit opened in freaking mid-air, magic sparkling around its edges. A boy of about twelve or thirteen stepped through, with tangled dark hair and bright green eyes.

Yeeps. Another ghost? But no, he was solid, not see-thru like Nick.

She glanced at Brock, but he seemed totally unfazed by this development. “Hey, DB,” he called. “What’s shakin?”

The boy shrugged in typical teenage fashion. “I was bored, so I came over.” He looked at Mari and asked with a touch of hostility, “Who’s she?”

“A friend of Squatch’s.”

“He has friends?”

Brock gave a snort of laughter. “Weirder things have happened.” He shot the ball to the kid with a two-handed push, and DB caught it. Then he tossed it up in the air for Nick to headbutt across the lawn. They both ran after it.

“Whose kid is that?” Mari asked. There had been no mention of kids in her not-exactly-stalking research of the Wild Blood Crew.

Brock shrugged. “No one knows. He just shows up without warning every now and then. He’s got no manners, but then who around here does? He’s a good kid, with a good heart. And he’s saved the crew’s asses with his powers more than once.”

“Yeah, what the hell was that stepping-out-of-nowhere thing he did?”

“Interdimensional doorway.”

She gaped at him. “No way. Most full-grown wizards can’t do that.”

“I know. But dragons can. Some of them, anyway.”

She turned and stared at the boy, who was now dribbling the soccer ball across the front lawn, just barely keeping it away from Nick.

“He’s a dragon? A dragon named… DB.”