The Protector (Fire's Edge)

by Abigail Owen

  His thought pressed into her, just for her she knew, the same way she knew when any dragon was speaking to her directly. She just did. But this felt as though he’d added weight to the words, the heaviness of an emotion she couldn’t, or maybe didn’t want to, identify.

  Lyndi nodded, not trusting herself to say more.

  Still hovering before her, he turned his head, focusing on Finn. “You tell the Alliance that we took Tineen’s suggestion as an order and are escorting the boys to their individual clans for re-entry, personally.”

  “But we don’t go to the clans?” she asked.

  He trained copper-gold eyes on her, anger still glimmering at her like a wildfire in a distant field. “No. You disappear.”

  You. Not we. Because he wouldn’t be here. He was leaving in the morning. A fact that, if she let it in right now, might tip her over into the abyss of utter emotional meltdown. “But the team. When the Alliance realizes we’re gone, it puts you back in the crosshairs—”

  Levi gave a shake that almost appeared as though he was shimmying water off his scales. “With more than fifteen boys from every one of the six clans, it’s a trip that will take months. Even years, depending on how long you remain with each clan.”

  “They’ll check with the White Clan to make sure we’ve gone there. With their headquarters so close to the land bridge, it only makes sense.”

  “We say you’ve gone to the Red Clan first. It’s your clan, and with the High King there, plus the political tensions at this time, you wanted his blessing to cross boundaries with the boys.”

  It made sense, taking advantage of the chaos the clans were in currently. Communications were rare from the Red Clan, from most of the clans really—the kings seeming to focus on their war and leaving the colonies to themselves—so the Alliance’s ability to follow her progress would be interrupted.

  “But what about my—” She couldn’t even think the word.

  Kanta spoke up now. “Of course you expected your mate to understand that you needed to settle your orphans first, and you wanted that done as quickly as possible, so you got started.”

  “Good,” Finn said. “We’ll assure him that the mating can happen once you return.”

  I’m going to spend the rest of my life running, and the boys with me. What kind of life is that?

  But she couldn’t come up with any alternatives. This was it. It’s all she had.

  “Lyndi?” Levi asked, his voice gentle inside her head. But he, maybe more than anyone else, even more than her brother, knew how much she’d dreaded this day.

  “It’s the best idea I’ve heard,” she said. “Disappearing might be harder, with so many of us. Maybe if we split up—” She detested the idea of not being with every single one of those boys, but they didn’t have a choice here. “Mike, Attor, and Coahoma could each take a group maybe.”

  “Actually…we want to stay here.” Coahoma’s voice entered the mix. Suddenly, all three of her boys on the team dropped down to face her.

  Lyndi swallowed, likely her expression turning fierce. Along with Aidan, these men were the first she’d taken in. “Are you sure?”

  “We’re part of the team now,” Attor said. “They need us.”

  “It’s a risk,” she warned.

  “We know.”

  Damn Tineen. Damn the Alliance. Damn the High King and every single thing that had led her to this moment.

  After a second, her heart shriveling even as pride in her boys kept it from turning into a dried-out husk, Lyndi nodded her agreement. They were old enough to make their own decisions now. No matter how it hurt to let them stay. “We’ll figure out the where and how as we go,” she said. “It’ll take days to get up to Alaska anyway.”

  Buying her time to think, to plan.

  “We’d better leave now. We don’t want to risk Mathai coming early or Tineen returning on some trumped-up reason.”

  “Agreed,” Finn said.

  “Not fucking agreed,” Drake snapped.

  Her brother landed smoothly, incredible to see when only months before he’d been on death’s door. Mating truly was a miracle for their kind. One more thing she would never get to have.

  Lyndi spiraled down to where he waited, landing just as smoothly. “You’re not going to talk me out of this,” she insisted as she stalked toward him.

  Drake’s spikes rose straight up along his spine, a sure sign of his ire. “The hell I’m not. You don’t have to do this. The boys are old enough to go without you. They know what they’re doing.”

  “You want me to abandon them?” she asked in a soft voice. “And be mated to a stranger?”

  Drake snorted, red flames drifting out of his nose and around his horned face, giving him an almost demonic appearance.

  Cami came out of the dark, probably having landed farther away, sidling up to him. She rubbed herself against him almost like a cat. “You don’t want that, either,” Cami said, letting Lyndi overhear.

  Drake shook his head, the action more violent than resigned, like a bull about to charge a matador’s cape. “You’re my sister. My family.”

  “And the boys are my family, too. This is what I have to do. Like you thought you had to leave the team—and me—without a word and go off to die. This isn’t a choice, Drake. Can’t you see that?”

  He shook his head again. Then his sides heaved with a long-drawn breath. “You’d better stay alive out there.”

  “I’ll make sure she does.” Levi appeared beside her.

  Lyndi jerked her head around to stare at him. “No—”

  “I’m not asking, min eneste.” He spoke in that spooky calm voice he used only when he was deadly serious. Suddenly his lips curled back in a dangerous grin. “I have to travel to the Gold Clan anyway. We tell them I’m your escort. The Alliance won’t be surprised that a female can’t escort this group on her own and needs a big, strong man to help her.”

  Because the world was stupid, he wasn’t wrong. But what if they were caught? They’d kill him. “I can’t ask you to do this.”

  He focused on her in a way that she knew the next words were for her ears alone. “If you think I’m letting you walk away—”

  “This had nothing to do with that.”

  “This has everything to do with that.” He stepped closer, the charred scent of his fire curling around her, woodsy and wonderful. Dammit. “Someday, when you finally realize what this is between us, you’ll know why.”

  “Not to step on your tail, son,” Deep’s voice chimed in.

  Lyndi jerked at the sound of Deep’s voice. When had he arrived? She searched the skies. Where was he anyway?

  “I know my timing is for shit. I’ve heard most of what’s happened, but you need to know that I found that missing mate of Shula’s.”

  Oh gods. Lyndi wanted to shut her eyes against what came next. She’d almost forgotten her promise in the panic.

  “Where?” Levi asked.

  A shadow of a flicker helped her lock in on where the red dragon was coming from, still a few miles out.

  “In the Alaz headquarters. Hagues Peak. From what I was able to determine, he’s been ordered to get the dragon who turned her and turn them both over to the Mating Council. I already warned Shula. She and I are going after Bree. I could use help.”

  Every dragon in the air surged forward, but Deep’s next thought beat them to it. “Just one.”

  Even from the ground, she could see the way Deep’s gaze cut to Levi, and she realized who Deep wanted to take with him.

  “Why me?” Levi asked.

  Deep dropped in the air, coming in for landing, flaring his wings wide at the last second to slow his momentum, the way he touched down gingerly just another sign of his age. “It’ll be a distraction, cover for Lyndi and the boys to get out. After we’re done, you can follow her, make sure no one is on her
trail and meet her at an arranged place.”

  No. Hell no. Lyndi wanted to scream it. But she’d made a promise, and Levi would no doubt appreciate the idea of her getting away safely as he acted as a distraction.

  But an idea—finally her brain seemed to be swimming out of the shock—hit her all at once. If Bree was being held in the Alaz headquarters, then maybe, just maybe…

  Killing Tineen was the answer to all of this. They had to stealthily get Bree out. If they did their jobs right and no one knew who had helped her escape, and if Tineen happened to die in the process, who could possibly lay that at the Huracáns’ feet?

  “I should go,” she said.

  “Lyndi…” Levi said slowly.

  No way in hell would he let her if he knew what she was thinking. She swung the bulk of her body around to look him in the eye, pleading with him to support her in this.

  “Think about it,” she rushed to convince him. “I’m smaller, and so dark I can pass for a black dragon at night, and Rune taught me himself. If any of us can get in and out, it’s me. But, more than that, if they happen to catch us, I have an excuse to be there…the mating thing. You don’t. The rest of the team…same thing. It’s a plausible story.”

  Levi seemed to search her face for… What?

  “Lyndi should go with you, Deep.”

  Had the world just stopped turning on its axis, or was stress making her hear things now? Had he really just agreed to this?

  He was nodding now. “I take the boys and hide them. You’re the logical choice to go with Deep.”

  She stared at the golden dragon beside her, almost not daring to breathe. This was a huge risk. Monumentally huge. But Levi, instead of letting that overprotective thing override logic, was trusting her to get it done. He was also asking for her trust, that he’d care for the boys, even if she was taken.

  “You know that if I’m captured, I won’t let myself be mated.” She wouldn’t put into words the extremes she’d go to, but she saw in the way his eyes flamed that he understood. “We leave in two hours. I’m going to the house to get the boys ready.”

  So saying, and screw anyone watching and what they might be thinking, she turned and leaped into the air.

  …

  “Tell me you were able to track anyone who left when I arrived.” Tineen sent the thought ahead of himself to his second. Roan had allowed him to sense his presence miles away.

  “No luck. A large group, mostly younger dragons, flew out all at once.”

  “Were a blue male and female mated pair among them?”

  “I can’t be sure. There were several blue dragons, though.”

  “Which way did they head?”

  “Are you kidding me? I couldn’t follow every dragon as they split up, boss.”

  “Excuses.” No ire filled the word, just stating facts.

  “Fuck you.”

  Roan knew him well. He must be able to tell Tineen had come out of the Huracán headquarters in a pleased mood. And he had. Finally, things were falling his way. He’d have that team demolished in less than a month.

  That bomb he’d dropped on Lyndi Chandali about their upcoming mating had worked exactly as he expected, though he’d had to back off slightly. Her brother had come damn near to taking off his head. So had the beta, Levi. They hadn’t made a move, either of them, but his instincts had told him to beware. So he’d finished the inspection and left them stewing.

  The way he saw it, Lyndi had two options. Either she ran—and took her orphans with her after that brilliant none-too-subtle threat he’d made concerning them—in which case he’d have all he needed to bring the Alliance down on the team. Or she stayed and went through with the mating, a political coup for him as well as a string to pull to make the Huracáns dance to his tune.

  Either way, he won.

  “Did everything go to plan?” Roan asked.

  His beta was closer now but impossible to locate at night unless he wanted to be. Not like a black dragon, but dark green blended almost as well at night and the man was smart.

  “Even better than I thought. Aidan Paytah has been there,” he informed his beta. “Recently, I’d say.”

  “The fuck you say?”

  “With Sera. Impossible not to remember her scent.” Or the rookie who’d stolen a mate out from under the High King’s nose. Yet another sign of the Huracáns’ true loyalties. They should’ve killed him on sight, not sheltered him.

  Suddenly Roan appeared at his side, swooping in and leveling off to fly beside him. “How’s that a good thing? The Huracáns may have captured them and they escaped. You have no proof showing otherwise, and the scent will be gone by the time we return with Mathai.”

  “Proof for us…our assumption that the Huracáns are harboring Paytah and his mate had been confirmed. Their next moves will be what they hang on.” Savage satisfaction ripped through Tineen.

  He’d spent his entire life defending and protecting his people and their way of life. First as a personal guard to the King of the Black Clan, now as an enforcer. Do his duty and represent this clan with honor. Exactly what he’d done for over two centuries.

  That he couldn’t say the same of the Huracán enforcers sent rage clawing through him. His dragon wanted blood, but he’d take their downfall.

  They were dangerous. Insidious. Divisive.

  Unworthy of the title, of the position of leadership their kings had honored them with. Maybe they’d spent too much time in the colonies.

  “You didn’t see their faces,” he said to Roan. “Lyndi’s mating was exactly the catalyst to get them to react. And those orphans are family to them. They won’t accept them being sent away. Combined, after the pressure we’ve put them under these last months, it will be like a spark to tinder.”

  Roan said nothing, but that tended to be his version of agreement.

  “Any mention of the groups in their territory that we’ve…visited?”

  “Not a word.” Pathetic. What kind of enforcers didn’t know what was going on in the communities they protected? He’d absconded with a damn mate, and not a blip. Unless the black dragons hadn’t reported it.

  “That’ll help with getting Shula,” Roan said.

  It would. Only having to deal with the small community of black dragons would be a hell of a lot easier than taking on enforcers.

  On the other hand, taking Shula would no doubt hit the radar of other groups of dragon shifters nearby. If he worked it right, putting the blame on the Huracáns, continuing to turn those based in the western territory against the very enforcers meant to keep them safe was still part of his plan.

  One way or another, he was going to take those assholes down.

  …

  Rolling one last outfit—yoga pants because they packed smaller, T-shirt, sports bra, undies, and socks—into a neat bundle she could just grab out of her pack, Lyndi paused as the sound of feet approached her door. Being at the end of the hall usually meant that sound was a visitor for her.

  Levi maybe? She needed to talk to him before they left. The last chance she’d get before they split up.

  Only every time she started toward his room, an icy hand clamped down on her windpipe and her dragon would growl at her. Because the selfish half of her didn’t want to leave him. The boys, too, but in some ways Levi even more. So she’d finished packing instead. Like a coward.

  When had she become such a wimp?

  The knock at her door wasn’t unexpected, and Lyndi cinched up her pack, a hiker’s duffle with a strong waist strap that she’d bought years ago when recreational hiking had become a thing for humans.

  When she swung open the door, she paused. “Mike.”

  The way her heart dropped at the sight of the younger man’s face, instead of Levi’s, was ridiculous.

  Ri-fricking-diculous, she mentally repeated louder in her he
ad, like that might make her heart understand.

  She was turning into one of those girls who constantly checked her phone for messages and only felt half alive until he came around. Absurd and it needed to stop.

  “What’s up?” There. That sounded perfectly normal.

  “I’ve helped most of the others. I think half an hour at most, and they’ll be ready to go.”

  “Great.” How did she not hug the kid until she smothered him, or act like they weren’t about to break up their family? She cleared her throat. “I’ll finish packing here. Send Elijah down and let the rest know to meet everyone topside in an hour.”

  Ten minutes later, another knock sounded. At her call, Elijah popped his head through the doorway, mop of sandy hair covering his green eyes. “Mike said you need me?”

  Lyndi nodded and abandoned her packing to pick up a slip of paper she’d printed out and put on the island counter separating her kitchen and family room.

  “Here.” She handed it over.

  While he took it, he didn’t open it. “What’s this?”

  “Just read it.”

  Brow still furrowed, he unfolded the paper and his eyes moved as he skimmed the words. Then paused and read it again more slowly. “My old colony will take me back?” He lifted his head to stare at her closely, brows puckered. “You want me to go?”

  The question suddenly made her remember how young he truly was, and damned if her heart, already cracked and bleeding from today’s revelations, didn’t lose another chunk at his expression.

  “Of course I don’t,” she said.

  Then reined herself in and tried not to let him see how desperately she wanted to keep him with her. Elijah had always been her thinker, and this was up to him. “I want you to have options. That’s all this is.” She waved at the paper. “Your cousin contacted me a month ago asking about you. He was happy to learn about how well you’ve been doing.”

  Elijah snorted. “I bet.”

  Suddenly he was a man instead of closer to a thirteen-year-old boy. Life had done that to him, made him untrusting so young.

  Lyndi gave him a long, serious stare. “I think he’s sincere in missing you and regretting being part of making you leave. The entire community has voted to ask you back.”