The Protector (Fire's Edge)

by Abigail Owen

  “…I can.” But he’d hesitated. Just a beat, but her dragon heard it loud and clear, and whimpered in her head.

  “I always knew if I let you get close—” Her voice cracked and Lyndi shoved up off his lap, walking across the small clearing, her back to him, gathering her courage and everything else she would need to do this.

  Turning to face him, she found him standing where she’d left him, watching her with an expression that yanked her heart out and squeezed the life out of it, leaving a gaping wound in her chest. In her life.

  “One of us has to be sensible about this, or we’ll both break eventually. Don’t make me do this on my own. Don’t make me—” Her voice hitched again, and she paused, inhaling through her nose. “Please,” she whispered.

  Levi took one step toward her, reaching out as if he could make her change her mind. “Don’t push me away—”

  The only warning they had that they weren’t alone was the rustle of the high-topped pine trees an instant before a large form obliterated the moonlight. The black dragon rushed by at full speed, dipping closer at the last second.

  He slammed his barbed tail into Levi like a baseball bat and sent him careening through the air. Horror gripping her body, freezing her in place, she watched Levi flail over the tops of the trees then slam into the mountainside, slipping down with a tumble of rock and debris until he disappeared behind the tree line that obscured the base of the mountain from her view.

  He’s gone.

  That single thought galvanized her, shocking her out of her frozen state like dead tissue come to life. Immediately, pushing to the point of pain, she brought on her shift.

  “We’re under attack.” She sent the thought to every one of her boys and Vilsinn, too.

  She didn’t have time to communicate more. At the speed he was going, it would take the black dragon a solid minute to turn and come back for her. Tineen coming for his mate? Or Roan, the Alaz’s other black dragon, following their trail? No doubt in her mind this had to be one of them. She hadn’t got a good enough look at him to tell.

  She planned to be ready.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Crouching low, wings tucked into her body, Lyndi didn’t prepare to fly. The only advantage on her side was the Alaz enforcer underestimating her. Whoever he was had to assume she’d try to fly away, gain some altitude and either get to the mountain or to her boys.

  Their voices crowded into her mind, rushed but also resolute. Focused on her next moves, she shook off the flicker of concern that threatened to bloom into a full raging fire of a mother’s need to protect. She couldn’t do that until the threat was dealt with.

  Concentrate.

  Training every sense, she stayed entirely still and waited for that telltale disturbance of the treetops. She had to time this just right and hope like hell she didn’t jump at a breeze.

  Damn black dragons and their silent flight.

  There. A barely discernable whoosh of sound, different from the wind in the trees. Setting her gaze on the top of a single pine, she waited, muscles bunching in readiness as she watched. The pine didn’t move.

  Closer. Closer, motherfucker.

  The needles at the very top shivered.

  Springing with everything she could, Lyndi launched her body straight up and clamped her jaw shut around the dragon’s throat as he tried to buzz past.

  Triumph blasted through her. “Got you, asshole.”

  In almost the same instant, he flipped and, without her talons in him, her body was flung, long neck snapping back so hard a starburst of pain lit up her entire body. She had to let go or risk permanent injury.

  The momentum slammed her back to the ground, carving out a swath of trees as she went. Through the stunned daze trying to settle over her, the ground vibrated beneath her with the thunder of a dragon charging. Immediately, she scrambled to her feet to face her attacker.

  She squared off, head lowered, all of her pulled in tight like Drake had taught her. Not Tineen. He was smoky gray in coloring, and this one was like onyx. This had to be Roan.

  Whoever he was, he didn’t stop, bearing down on her, knocking over more trees with groaning crashes as he barreled through.

  A flash of hot pink just behind the black dragon’s head caught her attention a beat before Mike came out of nowhere and flew into him from the back, full speed, claws extended. The clash of dragons boomed, and the two tumbled end over end, directly at Lyndi. In a jerk of motion, she got her wings out just in time to force her body up in the air, barely clearing their rolling bodies, coming down on top of the thrashing combatants.

  She landed on the black dragon’s wing and used her diamond-hard talons to rend the membranes in long tears and the black dragon screeched in agony. A shadow had her jerking her head up to find Attor dropping down on top of them. Bigger than both her and Mike, he landed on the fucker’s back, weighing him to the spot. Right behind Attor, Coahoma dropped to the ground.

  “Hold him down,” Lyndi ordered. “He’s mine.”

  With her boys holding a bucking, thrashing black dragon pinned to the ground, she moved around to his head, going eye to eye.

  “Roan?” she demanded.

  He smiled at that, lips curling back over massive spiked teeth. “They’ll find you eventually.”

  Meaning Tineen—her damn “designated” mate—would find her. “Your biggest mistake was coming after my family, asshole.”

  The rumble of fire building inside him only made her dragon angrier, her body vibrating with fury. “Coahoma.”

  The white dragon snapped forward and grabbed the black dragon by the head spikes, jerking the Alaz enforcer’s head backward, exposing his jugular. In one, sharp, vicious move, she lunged. Teeth sinking true she ripped out his neck in one twisting motion. Blood spurted into her mouth, sharp and metallic, and his gizzard hung from her maw, a hunk of raw, black scale-covered meat.

  Bile rising inside her, joining the fire licking up her throat, she spat it out.

  Staring at her like they’d never seen her before, none of her boys spoke. Lyndi’s tail slashed behind her, a growl ripping from her, and all three of them backed up cautiously, leaving the kill for her.

  Intuition and fury driving her, Lyndi pounced, ripping into the other dragon. She didn’t stop gnawing at him until she’d ripped a hole in the center of his chest. Then she reared back, kindling her fire, letting it build to an inferno before loosing it inside the open gash. Not stopping, even as the charred sour scent of death rose from the body, even when her boys tried to reach her.

  “Lyndi.”

  Her human side could hear them calling her name. Mike even tried to get in her face, only her dragon snapped her jaws at him. A warning to stay away. Then she continued to obliterate the black dragon’s body.

  He’d dared threaten her boys, her friends, her family. And Levi.

  Lyndi closed her mouth with a painful snap that reverberated down her spine.

  Levi. Picturing him dying without her there… I have to find him.

  “Are there any others?” she demanded.

  Coahoma shook his head. “Not that we saw. He followed Levi and the boys’ trail.”

  So he hadn’t followed her from Colorado? After dropping the mate bomb on her, Tineen must’ve sent him to the Huracán headquarters to watch and make sure she didn’t run.

  She didn’t even glance at the pile of melted flesh and ash at her feet. They’d have to figure out the circumstances later. “I’m not risking others being out there. Gather the boys inside the mountain and be ready to defend it.”

  She was in the air before consciously deciding to fly.

  “Where are you going?”

  “To get Levi.”

  Mike appeared beside her in the sky. “They have him already.”

  “Where?”

  “In the mountain.”
>
  Lyndi didn’t even have to change direction. Heart slamming against her ribs as though it would break through and run on ahead of her, she hardly stopped herself in time to land instead of slam into the mountain. Shifting quickly, she ran inside to find Marin there waiting.

  “This way,” the boy said, and spun away.

  Hurrying after him, she smelled the blood before anything else. Not what covered her chest after the Alaz enforcer, drying and dead, but a different scent. Fresher. Still warm. Marin stood to the side of the entrance to what was supposed to be her shared room with Levi and she walked into chaos.

  Levi lay on their sleeping bags, shirtless and unconscious. A good thing, too, given his injuries.

  Elijah and William worked together, the younger ripping up clothes that lay in a pile on the floor, creating strips the older was using to stem the blood pumping out of a gaping wound in Levi’s gut. Beside the clean pile of clothes was an equally large pile of blood-soaked rags.

  No. He can’t die. I can’t lose him.

  Lyndi dropped to her knees beside him and went to work. Grabbing their packs, she got them under his legs, elevating them. Then held out a hand without looking. William shoved clean strips at her, and she stuffed them into the wound, packing it tight, then, the heels of both hands side by side, she pressed down hard.

  His body would take care of fixing the gash, but if he lost too much blood before then…

  Don’t.

  She glanced over her shoulder at Marin. “Get me one of the small lighters.”

  He was out the door like a shot.

  “Can’t you use your own fire?” Elijah asked.

  That would be faster, except she’d spent hers on that bastard that was a pile of ash in the woods now. Besides… “Not for this.”

  The thump of Marin’s feet on the floor reached her before he popped around the corner. “Here.”

  She took the gadget from him and flipped the flame on, holding it that way. Then inhaled a calming breath. Steady hands were needed right now.

  “Don’t wake up,” she muttered grimly at the man she’d never walk away from again if he survived this.

  Fisting the sticky, crimson rags, she jerked them out of her way, exposing the open wound, and shoved the flame inside him. The sickening scent of searing flesh hit her nostrils almost immediately. Focused on what she was doing, she concentrated on where the blood was coming from first. The small lighter wasn’t enough to cauterize quickly, and it took several passes and a lot more rags to wipe away the thick liquid bubbling up from inside him with each pump of his heart. Finally the gushing started to slow. She didn’t stop it completely, but enough that the next set of rags didn’t change from white to red immediately.

  Holding pressure on the wound, watching the color under her hands, conscious of the shallow rise and fall of his chest with each labored breath, Lyndi waited.

  “Come on.”

  “Lyndi.” She had no idea when Mike had come into the room.

  “What’s the status?” she asked, not letting up or looking away from Levi.

  “Clear as far as we can see. Everyone is gathered in the central cave with the…err…troll.”

  She nodded, half expecting him to call her Lyndi-Loo-Hoo or crack a joke. When he didn’t she bought herself a second as she wiped sweat and blood and tears from her face and eyes with a swipe of her arm before looking at him.

  “I want all of you staying in the main chamber together the rest of the night. No patrols.” Not worth the risk of one or two lives at this point. If anyone tried to get in here, they’d hit a wall of dragon shifters.

  Mike crouched down in front of her. “Let one of us give you a break.”

  Lyndi blinked. Somehow his being serious in this moment just hit her harder, the ache of tears pressing at her eyes. She shook her head, forcing them back, as she held out her hand for another rag, swapping it out. Satisfied to see dry parts to the old one. The bleeding had definitely slowed.

  She turned her head, staring at one of the first boys she’d brought to her home. “Why are you here?” she asked Mike.

  The twitch to his mouth almost had her smiling, and she corrected herself. “Not in the room, goofball—here at all. You’re supposed to be with the team at headquarters.”

  “Drake sent us behind you by a few days to make sure no one else followed.”

  Her brother had done that? Lyndi closed her eyes, suddenly exhausted. Of course he had. He’d always taken care of her, even when she didn’t want it.

  The soft sound of footfalls had her opening them again to find Coahoma and Attor standing in the doorway. Gods above. When had her orphans become men? Even Mike. Logically she knew they had. She’d even approved their quasi-status on the team. But right now, right in this moment, was when she truly knew it. They’d grown up and didn’t need her anymore. She needed them.

  “We followed that black dragon’s trail and only caught up with him tonight,” Mike said. “Our timing to get to you was pure coincidence.”

  “Fate,” she whispered. Then glanced at Levi’s face, wanting desperately to smooth out the grimace of pain contorting his features.

  “Or luck.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t believe in that kind of luck. A guiding hand is at work in all things.”

  Levi would laugh to hear those words, since he didn’t believe in the fates. Damn, she wished he’d open his eyes and do just that. Try to argue her out of her beliefs. And tell her he loved her one more time.

  “Hey,” Mike said, pulling her attention back to him. “It’s going to be okay. Let us take care of you for once.”

  Then he wrapped his arms around her, and Lyndi let her forehead fall on his shoulder, his chin coming down on the top of her head. A second later two more sets of arms came around her. All three of her boys.

  You should see this Levi, she thought, willing him to wake up. You’d be so proud of them.

  …

  Why are my eyes sealed shut?

  Levi came back into his body slowly, the darkness he floated in turning heavy, weighing down his chest as though he was pinned under a boulder. And something was tickling his chin. He tried to lift a hand to swipe at his face, but his arms wouldn’t budge, as though they’d been strapped down.

  A grunt echoed in his head. Was that him or his dragon?

  Suddenly, in the darkness, his animal was there with him, lifting his head with trembling difficulty, as though his body had turned to lead. He nosed at Levi as if asking if they were okay.

  Give me a minute.

  Pulling air into lungs that sat tight in his chest, he willed himself to wake up. He managed to peel open first one eye, then the other, to discover Lyndi sprawled across his chest.

  Apparently, she’d sat beside his bed and fallen asleep on top of him, silky hair spread over him, brushing at his chin. And dead asleep.

  “Ly—” He had to stop and clear his throat, swallowing a few times. “Lyndi,” he managed on the second try, though it came out raspy.

  With a sucked-in gasp, she jerked upright and blinked at him twice before her eyes widened. “You’re awake,” she whispered.

  “Yes—”

  With frantic hands, she pulled the sheets bound tightly around his arms back to bare his stomach. Levi frowned at the shiny, angry pink swath of skin, almost a perfectly round hole, just below his ribs on the right side of his abdomen.

  “What happened—”

  Lyndi jerked her gaze to his, then her eyes welled with tears. With a muffled sob, she dropped her face in her hands, shoulders shaking.

  Shock froze his systems in place. Lyndi crying had the effect of sending his protective instincts into overdrive, his dragon whining inside his head.

  “You almost died.” Her voice came out broken, anguished. “I almost lost you.”

  She crawled up
on the bed with him, wrapping her arms around his neck and burrowing her head into him, soaking his skin.

  Levi grinned as he closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around her, smoothing a hand up her back, tangling it in her hair. He inhaled her springtime and smoke scent and let himself hope—really hope—for the first time since meeting her, that maybe he had an actual chance.

  She wasn’t running. She wasn’t pretending to be brave. She wasn’t hiding from him anymore. This was the real her.

  And damn, she was incredible.

  Lyndi lifted her head, but before he could grin or say a damn thing, her lips were on his, demanding, drugging, and the sweetest thing he’d ever tasted. Berry ripe and eager for him in a way he hadn’t sensed from her before. As though she was holding nothing back.

  But he needed to know for sure that what his heart was telling him wasn’t a lie. Or a dream.

  “Lyndi—”

  She broke off the kiss only to pepper a trail of kisses along his jaw up to his ear to nip at his lobe, and his dick, already a good soldier standing to attention, twitched.

  “Lyndi—”

  “Please, Levi.” The trail of kisses led down his neck and gods did he want to just surrender to her and give in to whatever she had in mind. But he had to know.

  He took her firmly by the arms, giving a little squeeze. “Min eneste, stop.”

  She went so still in his arms he could’ve been holding a marble statue. Only the tiny shuddering breath she took gave any indication she was alive. Then she took a deeper breath and, hands planted to either side of him, lifted her head to stare back at him with eyes so wide and wary and bruised, he wanted to tug her back into his arms and tell her everything would be all right.

  “What’s your biggest fear?” she asked quietly.

  He frowned, not sure why she was asking, but didn’t put the question off. “Losing you.”

  She closed her eyes, anguish and hope in each small nuance of her expression, then opened them again, eyes glowing red. “Since when.”

  Only total honesty was going to get him through this. “The first time I saw you, though it took me a good decade to recognize it. You pushed me away so hard—” He shrugged. “And then I stayed away because…”