The Protector (Fire's Edge)

by Abigail Owen

  Asshole.

  “And where is your beta?” Lyndi asked in a cloyingly sweet voice.

  After years of having it directed his way Levi recognized it as a warning signal that her temper was not far behind. He could have kicked her and kissed her at the same time, standing up for him that way. Sweet, especially given she was usually the one finding fault with him, but also dangerous.

  Tineen’s gaze slid to her and stilled, though, after a moment, he seemed to ease into himself again. “Why do you ask?”

  She shrugged. “It’s dangerous to travel alone these days. I wouldn’t want something to happen to you.”

  Words that could be interpreted as a threat, except for the fact that she’d delivered them with her dark eyes wide and innocent, and a tone that a well-meaning grandmother might have used, as though she were sincerely concerned.

  “Indeed,” Tineen said. Was that a sneer? It certainly wasn’t an answer when the question was, in actual fact, a real one. Why was Tineen alone? Or were more Alaz members close by? Just out of range of their patrol, maybe. Would they track Aidan and Sera? Capture them?

  Tineen pursed his lips, then shifted his gaze to Lyndi. “So…you said you were practicing down here?”

  “Yes,” Lyndi said. Then tucked her hands into the back pockets of her jeans and stared back with a patient expression. Defying the other man with direct answers, but no additional information.

  That’s my girl.

  Levi had to hide a grin at the flash of irritation in Tineen’s eyes. For once, Levi wasn’t the one dealing with the kind of frustration she could engender.

  “She had my permission to use the facility,” Drake said. The red dragon was still on the cusp of a snarl, lips curled.

  “I’m still not sure what you mean by practicing.” Tineen ignored Drake to ask Lyndi, tone not quite so congenial.

  “Shifting,” Lyndi said. Still keeping it to one-word answers.

  “What?” Hall interjected. “Don’t the Alaz team practice?”

  Tineen flicked him a dismissive glance then looked around the chamber. There was only room in any part of the tunnel for one dragon to fit, even at its widest points. “In here?”

  “Yes.”

  Tineen blew a breath out of his nose. “Why in here?”

  “I find younger shifters should practice in different environments. Don’t you?” She blinked at him like this was completely normal.

  It wasn’t. She’d never practiced in here or had her boys do that. Though, now that Levi thought about it, that wasn’t a half bad idea.

  Tineen’s expression turned strangely satisfied. “Are you saying the youngest members of the team need more practice?”

  He slid a glance to the older of her boys, who were now technically enforcers if not officially sanctioned by their kings, well aware of who they were no doubt.

  Lyndi gave the guy a pitying smile that would’ve made a lesser shifter growl. “Of course not. I’m talking about my younger boys. As I’m sure you remember, younger dragons’ instincts are triggered more easily. Today, we were practicing close quarters shifting and flying.”

  “Uh-huh. And where are the younger ones now?”

  “Most of them just left down the back exit.” She waved behind her. “I sent them to do a practice run in daylight, before they head home.”

  “I see.” Tineen nodded slowly. “Which of these remaining are…yours?”

  Lyndi’s face was one she’d shown Levi often through the years. How she managed to appear both disdainful and like she thought he was pretty damn stupid while smiling sweetly he still had no idea. “Mike, Coahoma, and Attor are behind you.” She indicated the oldest of the boys with a wave.

  “The younger ones,” Tineen clarified through gritted teeth.

  “Oh.” Lyndi made a sound he’d never heard from her. A giggle that gave her an air of ditziness that she would normally hate to project. “Of course. Like I said, the others have gone. Only Marin, who is my youngest at the moment, is still here.”

  The boy, suddenly looking all of his nine years when usually he seemed younger, moved out from behind a glowering Hall to her side to have her wrap her arm around him in a casual motion that Levi knew was more about protecting her kid.

  Tineen studied the younger boy. “Have you made your first shift yet?”

  Marin glanced to Lyndi who nodded at him to go ahead. “No, sir.”

  Tineen’s eyes narrowed as he lifted his gaze back to Lyndi. “You are aware of the danger?”

  “Yes. Has the law changed regarding orphans?”

  Unlike rogues, who not only could be killed on sight, but their kind was encouraged to do so, orphans didn’t have to be shunned. It just happened.

  “No,” Tineen said slowly. But the way he watched Lyndi, a light in his eyes Levi didn’t trust, he was headed somewhere with this. “You expose our best fighters to him?”

  Marin flinched, though the kid raised his chin in a move so like Lyndi—brave and stubborn through his fear—it made Levi’s heart turn over. If the Alliance wouldn’t miss Tineen’s absence and come looking here first, Levi would happily snap the man’s neck right now. Holding back his dragon had him stepping back more abruptly than he would’ve liked, the motion a tell, hands in fists. He wasn’t the only one. Drake’s eyes might light them all up in red flame if they glowed any brighter.

  Coahoma, younger and less controlled, didn’t entirely manage it. “Watch it,” he snapped, his dragon so evident that his voice wasn’t his own. Like a cross between human and a monster. Even Levi’s dragon, focused intently on Tineen, paused at the sound.

  “Watch yourself,” Tineen warned. “Your place as an enforcer is temporary, and even then, knowing who has leverage is a smart move, son.”

  “I’m not your son, asshole.”

  “Thank the gods for that.” Deliberately Tineen turned his back on the younger man. A show of no respect. Or sheer stupidity, but Levi knew the other man wasn’t stupid. The provocation was deliberate.

  Coahoma drew back a fist, his face a picture of rage and fire, only Levi stepped right into him. “Stop.”

  Immediately, Coahoma halted, fist still cocked, expression torn between the rage of his animal and the need to obey a man who was one of his leaders as well as a mentor and friend.

  “That’s right. Listen to your elders.”

  Levi clamped his hands down on Coahoma’s shoulders, holding him in place. In that moment, he realized what Tineen was up to. He was trying to push buttons until he had a reason, any reason, to shut them down.

  Tineen’s gaze took in Levi’s hands and moved to his face. “Gold dragon,” he murmured. “Shouldn’t you be on your way to your king? Our man was called back recently.”

  Ice settled in Levi’s veins, because there was something about the way Tineen spoke that felt like a threat.

  “I leave tomorrow.”

  A smile. “Good.”

  Coahoma wasn’t who he needed to worry about. With a snarl that sounded more like a small dog, Marin kicked Tineen in the shin before Lyndi could yank him behind her.

  Every person in the room stilled and waited. Emotion pulsed through them, though you’d never know from their expressions, as they watched the Alaz enforcer closely.

  After a second, Tineen tipped his head as he turned his focus back to Lyndi, the expression reminding Levi of a buzzard picking at a carcass. “I’ll talk to the Alliance about your orphan program,” he said. “I’m sure we could use more like it.”

  What. The. Fuck?

  Lyndi couldn’t hide her own similar reaction, shock rippling across her face, but she held her tongue.

  “Once they’ve successfully learned to shift and are deemed ready to reenter society,” Tineen said next, “I’m sure it’s best that they be reintegrated. Returned to their individual settlements, if possible, or
to their individual clans. We’ll see what Mathai has to say, hmmm?”

  Lyndi’s face went as white as bones bleached by the sun a heartbeat before her eyes lit with a red inferno. “The best place for my boys is here, where they’ve grown up,” she said. “They have a home and a colony of their own already.”

  Tineen nodded slowly as though truly considering her point. “I’ll be sure to pass that…view…on to the Alliance members.” Like he was on her side. “But without you here, I’m sure they’ll agree with me anyway.”

  Levi’s dragon flexed against him at those words. What did Tineen mean without her here?

  Lyndi had gone starkly still. “What?”

  Tineen smiled, his expression a sickening combination of gleeful and triumphant. “I’m not supposed to say anything, but a mate has finally been chosen for you. Blessed may your union be.”

  The words may as well have been grenades dropped among them. Levi’s hearing went silent. Everything inside him screamed that this couldn’t be true.

  “I don’t believe you,” Lyndi whispered.

  Tineen cocked his head. “Mathai will be here in person to officially tell you the good news. In five days. It’s why I had to fit this inspection in now. To be sure things were safe for his arrival.”

  “Who?” Lyndi was still whispering, seeming hardly able to get one word out at a time. Levi had never seen her so shaken in all the centuries he’d known her.

  Tineen’s smile turned brutally smug. “Me.”

  He took a step toward her, but paused, maybe thinking better of it, especially when a growl ripped from Lyndi’s throat, echoing off the cavern ceilings. Only by a miracle did Levi hold his own back. The panic-dipped realization that he couldn’t give this asshole anything else to use against her was the only thing keeping his dragon in check.

  Instead of snarling back, Tineen’s smile only broadened. “I look forward to taming that fiery spirit…mate. But I can see I have surprised you. I’ll give you some time to become accustomed to the idea before we talk further.” Abruptly, he turned to Drake. “Let’s see the rest of the mountain.”

  Moving closer to Lyndi, Levi took her arm and blocked her view of the Alaz leader as Drake took him away. Because her expression said she was ready to rip the fucker’s gizzard out. Most of the others followed, only her boys remaining behind. As soon as he was sure Tineen was out of earshot, the sound of the elevator telling him the others had gone up a level, he turned to face her.

  Lyndi stared over his shoulder in the direction the Alaz leader had departed, eyes still flickering red, lips clamped so tightly, he had to wonder if she was trying to keep herself from vomiting.

  Then she stepped into him. Automatically he wrapped his arms around her, absorbing her small body, trying to give her his own strength.

  “What are we going to do?” she whispered.

  Levi said nothing. What could he say? The crushing weight of all of this shit hitting at once was threatening to crush him. To pulverize him until he couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. He had to fix this. But how?

  How? The word echoed inside him as he tried to comfort Lyndi and settle the fury that wanted to be released.

  His dragon railed inside him with a violence that threatened to drag him under.

  Chapter Twelve

  What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?

  Lyndi sat in her room, where Delaney had finally managed to convince her to wait until Tineen left. Vaguely she was aware of how she was sort of rocking back and forth, staring blankly at the wall, but she didn’t care. The phrase had been repeating in her mind for a solid hour as she scoured her brain for a single plan that could get her out of this mess.

  Where could she possibly take all her boys and run to?

  She couldn’t stay. With a few words, Tineen had ripped everything safe and good about her home out from under her feet, sending her tumbling down a mental black hole that kept sucking her deeper, trying to crush the life from her.

  No fucking way was she mating that asshat. No way.

  But every possible move she made put someone she loved in danger. Her boys, her brother, Levi, the team.

  Taking the boys and running was out. It put her brother and the team in the crosshairs. Everyone running—team, boys, and all—was also out. No way could they move that many people at once without getting caught easily. Mating wasn’t going to happen. Sending her boys to the Alliance just wasn’t going to fucking happen, either. Ignoring either order—mating or sending her boys away—when they came wasn’t an option, though. The Alliance would simply send the other enforcer teams to take her and probably lock her away until she could be forcibly mated.

  Gods help me. She sent the plea to the heavens and the hells. She’d take any aid she could get at this point.

  “Tineen is gone.” Finn’s voice ringing in her head had Lyndi out of her room and running downstairs.

  “Don’t speak out loud,” came Finn’s next warning as she hit the grand staircase. “Assume he’s planted bugs all over the damn place. Meet up top and shift. We’re going to have an impromptu deep night training session.”

  Lyndi changed directions so fast, she ran into the wall of man who’d had to go off to his own room each night rather than share her bed. For appearances’ sake.

  “Calm down.” Levi mouthed the words, giving her arm a squeeze.

  She stared back wide-eyed for a second, physically holding herself back from launching into his arms. With a deep breath, she forced herself to walk ahead of him through the door into the training center and outside.

  Calm down. Calm the fuck down. He was right that she needed to. But how the hell was she supposed to do that when her boys had been threatened and she was supposed to be mated to that slimeball who wanted to “tame her fiery spirit?” She wanted to scream her horror to the world, but that wouldn’t do her any good, either.

  The cool air of night did nothing to help her reach that calm. As soon as she unleashed her dragon form, she surged toward where Finn stood, already shifted, at the back side of the training building. Already he had the oil barrels they trained with burning, lighting up the surrounding field and forest with the blue glow of his dragon fire.

  “What do we do—”

  “Not yet,” Finn warned her.

  More of that calm bullshit. Lyndi swallowed down the rest of the words, searing her throat along with sour bile that had been trying to come up since Tineen decided to focus on claiming her and disbanding her family.

  Once every single enforcer was gathered before him, taking up a crap ton of space, Finn finally spoke. “We’re going to run a standard formation, working on hiding our approach at night. Mike, I want you to fuck it up every time.”

  Mike’s hot pink coloring was still glaring, even at night, and the trip to Shula’s people said he really did need the practice. But that’s not what this was about, and they all knew it.

  “I’ll have to get in your face in case that fucker is watching. It’s not real. Got it?”

  Mike dipped his head. “Got it, boss.”

  And that’s what they did.

  While Lyndi practically vibrated with impatience, Levi hovered close, which weeks ago would have only added to her jangling nerves. For once, however, he didn’t talk, give her orders, or pester her. He just…was there. The only way she managed to keep going without losing her shit. Even in dragon form, her heart was clenching so hard, pain sliced through her chest in tune to the rapid beat.

  After the third time through the drill, and Finn deliberately got in Mike’s face, letting blue flames curl out of his mouth in a subtle display of anger, they ran it again. Only this time, they started talking.

  “Right. Talk.” Finn’s voice broke her concentration as Lyndi dove steadily toward the flaming barrels while keeping her belly to where he stood on the ground, using the camouflaging of the reflecti
ve scales underneath.

  “We’re not giving them Lyndi or our boys,” Levi said.

  Our boys.

  “Damn straight,” came Finn’s immediate response. “Ideas. Now.”

  A small corner of the panic receded in the warmth and light of the knowledge that she and her kids weren’t alone. The team had come a long way over the years. At first, they hadn’t wanted her to risk her life taking in orphaned dragons. Then they’d been wary of getting involved with the boys. Now, they were family. Dragon shifters didn’t adapt to change easily.

  I did that. Any swell of pride she might have had died a quick death under the piles of worry heaping over her, burying her alive.

  “Finn…I think I might have something,” Levi said slowly.

  She wanted to whip around to see him, where he trailed behind her in the drill, but she couldn’t. Instead, she swooped over the barrels, drawing the fire into herself through her scales as she’d been trained. A trick only enforcers learned to master. A twinge of searing pain near her tail told her that her distraction was making this a dangerous exercise to keep up.

  “Spit it out,” Finn said, when Levi paused.

  “Lyndi takes the boys up Alaska way to cross the land bridge.”

  Lyndi did whip around at that, bobbling in the air, and nearly took out the top of a pine tree, having to right herself and gain more altitude with several strokes of her wings, smoke curling out of her mouth with her fury. He was lucky she didn’t blast him with fire. “No. We’re not taking them to the clans—”

  “Dammit Lyndi, as if I would.”

  She almost flinched at the tone he used. One he never used with her. Guilt, sharp and ugly, immediately pierced through her panic. Of course he wouldn’t. Levi loved those boys, too, though he might not word it that way.

  Levi dropped down, allowing her to see the glitter of his scales as he came to her level and faced her across a swath of empty sky. “Trust me.”