by Katie Reus
All she wanted to do was head home, to decompress and wrap her mind around what had just happened, but she still had another meeting to get to. If it wasn’t with a friend, she’d cancel. “Let’s just get to this meeting,” she murmured as Ava steered out of the parking lot.
She wanted to get it over with and then maybe start day drinking to try and drown her misery.
* * *
Finn lay stretched out on his back in the pack’s training room, watching his mate practice with her wooden sparring sticks. Watching her was one of his favorite pastimes. “I really think you need to do that without a shirt on,” he murmured.
Lyra laughed, her long, blond braid whipping behind her as she completed an attack on the heavy bag. “You think I should do everything shirtless. And I’m not practicing without my top on.” She snorted softly as she swiveled away from the bag, going through one of her many routines. “The thought is utterly ridiculous,” she muttered before ducking low and avoiding an imaginary attacker.
Some days they sparred together, but she’d wanted to work alone today. Fine by him. He slid his hands under his head, just watching the woman he loved. As a bloodborn vampire she was already incredibly powerful. But she’d been practicing with weapons for years—after being kicked out of her coven by her brother right before sunrise. She’d wanted to learn how to take care of herself if she ever came up against stronger supernaturals. While Finn hated that she’d been put in the position to have to learn to defend herself because he hadn’t been there for her, he loved watching her work. No one else was in the gym right now. It was such a rare occurrence for them to have alone time since he was the Alpha.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do about Ian,” he said as she set her sticks down and began stretching. “His disrespect today isn’t exactly uncommon for someone of his power, but I still don’t know what to do. He literally burned three cars to ash in the parking lot when I told him he wasn’t allowed entrance to the club.”
Lyra let out a small, unexpected giggle. “Sorry, I’m not laughing at what we have to deal with. But it’s still a little funny. Was he challenging you?”
No doubt his mate already knew the answer because if Ian had challenged Finn, things would have gotten bloody really fast. “No. And that’s part of the problem. He has no desire to take over my pack, but doesn’t want to join it either. I just have this powerful being living in my territory who won’t listen to me.” And that could be a huge problem long term. If he allowed someone to publicly disrespect him it could undermine all the hard work he’d done to unify his pack, to carve out this prime territory and keep everyone under his authority safe.
“I was wondering how long it would take for something like this to come up. Do you think if it had to do with anything other than a female he would have disrespected you?”
Finn thought for a long moment. Ian hadn’t actually done it in front of anyone. They’d been the only two beings in the parking lot when the male had lost his shit. “No. He’s a good male and he helped out our pack when we needed it. And his own brother is in our pack. I don’t think he would ever jeopardize his brother’s safety.” Not that the pack would take out anything on Rory because of something that Ian had done, but still, the dragon shifter was loyal to his brother. “It’s just a frustrating situation right now.” And he didn’t want to overreact and come down hard on Ian when he wasn’t certain the situation actually warranted it. Being Alpha sucked sometimes.
Before either of them could say anything more, their eighteen-year-old daughter Vega came running into the gym with a big smile on her face. Her inky-black hair was down today and she wore a violet-colored sweater that matched her vivid eyes. She was the perfect mix of him and Lyra.
He still was coming to terms with the fact that he had a grown daughter. He loved her so much it scared him. Hell, he loved both of them to the point he knew he’d do anything for them. He stood as his daughter raced over the padded mats of the gym. Lyra stopped stretching as Vega threw herself at Finn.
“I heard what you did for Ian. That was so sweet!” She gave him a huge hug, taking him off guard. Shifters needed touch, but he was still getting used to the open sweetness of his daughter. She could be insanely emotional sometimes, but according to his mate that was just because of her age.
“What did I do?” He couldn’t think of anything that deserved a tackle-hug, but hell, he’d take it.
“Cynara told me that you told that woman who Ian is in love with that you wanted him as part of your pack. Basically you made him look wanted, worthy. That’s such a big deal, Dad! And Ian is such a sweet guy. He deserves what his brothers have.”
“You didn’t tell me you did that.” Lyra gave him a huge smile and a tackle-hug as well.
He grabbed both of his girls into a tight embrace and thanked whoever was up in heaven or wherever that he’d been given this incredible family. He wasn’t sure he’d done anything to deserve them but for the rest of his life he was going to make sure he treasured and protected them.
He cleared his throat as they stepped back. He’d been beyond pissed at Ian when the male had just sat down at the booth with him, refusing to leave. But the way the male had watched Fiona… “He looked at the female like… Well, like I look at you,” he said to Lyra. “I wanted to make him look respectable, wanted.” Ian had appeared so damn desperate as he stared at Fiona, as if he’d slay monsters for her or give her the damn world if she asked.
Finn knew exactly how that felt.
Lyra and Vega hugged him again with a fierceness he felt all the way to his soul. Yep. Never letting them go. They were his world, now and always.
Chapter 6
Even though Fiona wasn’t feeling remotely like herself, she put her game face on as they pulled up to the stretch of land right on the water. Or she tried to. Seeing Ian had been a sucker punch right to her heart. She couldn’t believe she’d just been sitting next to the only man she’d ever loved, had thought she’d never see again, less than an hour ago.
Focus, she chided herself.
It was almost impossible when she kept picturing him, remembering how talented he’d been with his hands, mouth and everything else. God, that male. The first time they’d met he’d watched her like a predator watched prey. But not in a scary way, because she’d wanted to be caught by him. It was as if she’d woken up the first time they’d locked eyes. At least her dragon half had. She always thought of her life as cut into halves. Before Ian and after Ian. And despite the heartache that had followed, the dulled pain she lived with on a daily basis, she’d never change meeting him, having him, even for such a short time.
She wasn’t sure who owned this land, but her longtime friend Gray had wanted to meet here. And it wasn’t quite on Finn’s territory. Right on the edge and bordering the ocean, it was maybe a mile or two outside his designated domain. Not that she would have told him about the meeting regardless.
“I see part of a vehicle.” Ava pointed toward a ramshackle building as Fiona’s truck rumbled over the makeshift, gravelly road. The back of a truck came into view as Ava steered around the winding road.
Fiona smiled when she saw Gray leaning against a beat-up old truck, his arms crossed over his chest. The truck was parked next to what had probably once been a bait shack but was now a pile of falling down aluminum siding. He lifted a hand in the air and half waved at them before glancing around, his body tense.
The first time Fiona had met him he’d just been a scared pup. His mother had been in an abusive relationship. Though relationship wasn’t even the right word for it. After Gray’s father had died his uncle had decided that Gray and his mother would become his new family. Fiona had put an end to that situation real fast. And it had been very bloody. But the male was long dead, and Gray and his mom had gone on to have good lives. Ever since then, she’d stayed in touch with the two of them. Gray’s mother had re-mated and was living out west, but Gray had remained in the area and was an internationally recognized scu
lptor.
He actually lived in Finn’s territory—with Finn’s permission—even though Gray was definitely an Alpha with a capital A. Fiona guessed the only reason Finn was okay with the male living in the territory was because he kept to himself and rarely ventured out in public.
Ava parked a few car lengths away from Gray’s truck and they both got out.
Gray was striding toward them before they’d taken a step. He was a big male with broad shoulders and had clear power rolling off him. The sleeves of his flannel shirt were shoved up to his elbows. “It’s good to see you. Though I wish it was under different circumstances.” Gray pulled her into a hug and lifted her off her feet. Even though he was a wolf he was still slightly taller than her.
She patted him on the back and found herself smiling as she stepped back to get a good look at him. His dark hair was a little shaggy and he’d decided to grow a beard since the last time she’d seen him. She ran her hands up and down his arms and took in his appearance. She squeezed his arms once, frowning. He was incredibly muscular but something seemed off. “Are you eating enough? You’re looking a little thin.”
The normally surly shifter actually blushed as he shook his head. “I’m fine. I was working on a deadline and then got pulled into some shit. It’s a long story. So no, technically I actually haven’t been eating well.” He nodded once at Ava, who murmured that she was going to head around the perimeter of the area.
There weren’t many places to hide on this open stretch of land, which was likely why Gray had picked it. Still, when Fiona and Ava met up with anyone, they always did a check of the immediate area. As a day walker, Ava was powerful in her own right as a vampire.
Gray was a sculptor so the deadline reference was clear, but she wanted to know what else was going on. “What did you get pulled into?” Fiona asked, getting right to the point.
“A friend of mine was hearing rumors of some bad stuff going down in a Hell realm. Well, worse than the normal shit that goes on in some of them. So he went to check it out. Once he discovered that the rumors were true, he came to get me. He wanted to go straight to Finn, but I wanted to see for myself first. So we made the trek into the realm.” He shut his eyes and ran a hand over his face. There was self-recrimination in his expression when he met her gaze again.
Fiona knew without him having to say a word that his friend must have died.
“My friend was murdered and I barely escaped alive. It was such an overwhelming force of half-demons. I hadn’t expected them to be so organized.”
“I’m sorry.”
He nodded once. “I don’t know who’s behind the whole operation, but I know what entrance they’re using to enter the Hell realm. And…there are dragons involved.”
Her blood chilled at his words. “How do you know?”
“Because I saw one of them use their fire to open the gate.”
Dragons were more secretive than other shifters by nature—and since they lived in clans they were powerful. She had a lot of questions regarding the dragon he’d seen but first she wanted to know what else he’d found out. “What are they into? Kidnapping? Skin trade?” She’d been in enough Hell realms to know what happened in some of them. In many, if not most, the supernatural beings, namely half-demons, lived there because they’d rejected the human realm for whatever reason and simply wanted to be left alone. But bad shit happened in some of them. She knew because she’d helped rescue more than one person.
“Kidnapping humans for their blood. It’s not sex trade. Not that I know of. They’re draining the humans they take and mixing their blood with a half-demon. I don’t know what type of half-demon though.”
There were many different types of half-demons. Half-demon/half-human, or half-demon/half-dragon as in Ian’s case—the possibilities were endless. She wouldn’t let herself think about Ian right now, however. “Why are they mixing the blood?”
“According to my friend, they’ve been selling the concoction in the human realm. It gives the user an incredible high and has seemingly no side-effects. At first anyway.”
She frowned. “So…they’re drug running?”
“Not exactly. Technically yes, they are. But this drug kills. A one hundred percent rate. Without fail, any user is dead within four days of use. From heart problems. No matter that the users have mostly been healthy and in their twenties and thirties.”
“That seems like a stupid way to do business if they’re not going to get any repeat customers.”
Gray shrugged. “They don’t want repeat customers. They want to start killing humans in mass quantities. This is just their testing ground. From what my friend gathered, they want to either eliminate humans altogether or make them servants.”
She knew dragons who thought that way. That humans were vermin that needed to be exterminated. “Your friend found all this out?”
“Yeah. He’d been watching these guys for about a month—but they’ve been at this a lot longer. He kept pretty good notes and I know when to ask for help. From what I can tell, their operation is pretty big and organized. I don’t know what else to do at this point. I’ll go back and kick ass with a team but…I can’t do it by myself.”
She was silent for a long moment as she digested his words. “Why not go to Finn Stavros? You’re in his territory.”
The male shrugged. “You’re a… You’re you. I know you. Know how powerful you are. And I know you’ve helped a lot of people in the past. I figured you might have contacts who could deal with this kind of thing. Finn’s all right I guess, but…I trust you.”
It warmed something inside her. “I just met with Finn for the first time today.”
Gray’s green eyes widened slightly. “How’d that go?”
She lifted a shoulder. Thinking of Finn made her think of Ian. Something she didn’t need to do right now. “It was interesting. I think he’s a good male.”
“Yeah, he is,” Gray said almost grudgingly.
“Where’s the gate?”
“Border of his territory.”
She rubbed the back of her neck, glanced out at the glistening water. Ava had her sunglasses on and was scanning the water, her body language tense. At her friend’s posture Fiona started scanning the water as well.
Some supernatural beings could camouflage themselves—specifically dragons. She inhaled deeply, scenting Gray, Ava in the distance and…it almost scented like Ian.
Had he followed her, or was that wishful thinking? No telling with that male. She should have expected it, but she’d been so damn anxious to get out of that club.
“I scent others,” Gray murmured. “We need to get the hell out of here—”
A burst of fire rained down from the sky, reds and oranges showering them in heat.
Fiona sprang into action on pure instinct, throwing herself over Gray. She must have taken him off guard because he fell backward under the weight of her tackle, grunting as they slammed to the ground.
“Stay under me!” As a dragon shifter she had a natural immunity to dragon fire. It was part of her survival skills. Heat licked all around her so she covered Gray with her dragon essence. She’d saved him as a pup; she wouldn’t let him die now. She desperately wished she could see Ava, but didn’t want to move until the threat had passed—she arched her back as something pricked her spine.
Blackness swam before her eyes as a spiderweb of agony burst through her entire body, sucking her under in a sharp tidal wave. Her chest tightened as she struggled to breathe, to keep her eyes open.
The last thing she heard was Gray screaming at her to stay awake.
* * *
Terror slammed through Ian as he saw Fiona fall, struggling to protect that male. She’d been hit with something.
Rage like he’d never known welled inside him as he unleashed a stream of blistering hot fire at the unknown dragon who’d dared to unleash its fire on her. Even from hundreds of yards higher than the camouflaged threat, he could see something sticking out of Fiona’s back. His
dragon senses were beyond acute.
Darts, maybe. He didn’t really care what. Whoever had hurt her was going to die.
He barely kept his camouflage in place as he dove down, wings plastered back against his body as he raced toward her. He spotted two giant SUVs spraying up gravel as they raced down the road toward Fiona and the male. He released another stream of fire, blasting the first vehicle.
It toppled on its side before he sent out another surge, incinerating it. Whoever was inside had just ceased to exist.
The other SUV jerked to a halt, quickly reversed. He slowed his descent, needing more control before he landed. He wanted to give chase, but had to get to Fiona.
Suddenly a geyser of ocean water shot upward like a volcano exploding. Fiona’s business partner screamed as an unknown force gripped her tight and picked her off the ground. Though he couldn’t see what held her, it had to be a dragon clasping her in its talons.
Her body suddenly shot forward in the direction of the quickly retreating SUV. He flew hard, chasing after them. He needed to check on Fiona but he knew how powerful she was, and he also needed to save her friend. Because it would kill Fiona if her friend was taken. That was just the kind of person she was.
He had only a small window of time where he could rescue the vampire. He had no idea who these attackers were or what they wanted, but he wouldn’t leave Fiona for longer than a minute. Not even that long. He pushed himself harder, his wings straining under his flight.
Suddenly the vehicle and a screaming Ava disappeared into thin air.
He slowed his flight, not sure he was seeing right. But it wasn’t the sun playing tricks on him, and in his dragon form he had exceptional sight. He flew in the same path the vehicle had been going, and then released a long stream of smoke instead of fire in the hopes that it would show the form of someone trying to camouflage themselves.
But even the scent trail had disappeared. He didn’t want to give up on finding her friend but there was no question which female he would choose now. Fiona.
