The dragon tore at Atticus from the inside. Even though he’d already shifted three times in one day, the beast wanted out again. It wanted to hunt Devin down and end him, inflicting as much pain as Devin had caused the pack. Atticus had to fight his beast back to keep it from erupting on the trailer porch.
“I can’t leave the pack in his hands,” Atticus said. “They deserve better. You deserve better. This is my territory, not Devin’s.”
Colton’s breathing steadied, telling Atticus that the argument was over. Colton was asleep. The night chill wouldn’t help him heal, so Atticus set aside the plate in Colton’s hands and lifted the young shifter. As if a magical sleep gripped Harry and Norma, neither woke while Atticus brought Colton to his own room. Perhaps Norma had gotten used to Harry’s loud snoring and now nothing could rouse either.
Atticus refused to hand this territory over to Devin. Not because the dragon inside him had claimed this land, but because the people on it were too precious. Atticus couldn’t uproot every single person in the pack and take them away with him. They all had lives here. Their jobs at the quarry kept food on their tables.
Even though he wanted to find Devin that night, Atticus went back to Frankie. He curled around his mate and listened to her even breathing. He’d thought he’d been handed a miracle. Frankie’s appearance interrupted his eternal sleep and granted him a second life. Now, he realized his reason for waking was a lot more complicated than he anticipated.
Colton’s words rang out in Atticus’s mind. Atticus could gather her and run as far as possible. He clutched her tight and she snuggled into him. All Atticus wanted was a happy existence. He thought he could have it when Frankie found him, but now he knew he needed to fight for what was his.
Atticus was a leader, an Alpha. It was time he started acting like one.
Chapter Eleven
Frankie recalled sleeping against Atticus, but when she woke, he was gone. She sat up, momentarily confused by her surroundings, then remembered where she was. The soft sounds of life came from the kitchen at the other end of the trailer. She twisted and touched the spot where Atticus had been.
The room smelled of him, meaning she hadn’t dreamed his presence. Atticus had been there with her.
Her request from the night before came rushing back. She leapt out of bed and rushed down the hall and flung her brother’s door open. The small room was a wild mess with one empty bed. Her heart flipped in her chest. Both Atticus and Colton were gone.
Bile rose to sear the back of her throat as she darted toward the kitchen. Her parents looked up, eyes wide with surprise. They shared a look but said nothing.
“What the hell are you doing?” Colton murmured as he stepped out from behind the post in the middle of the kitchen.
Frankie slapped a hand over her heart and willed it to settle. Relief nearly made her throw her arms around her brother’s shoulders, but neither her wolf nor his bear would have liked it much. She couldn’t go around riling both up.
“You made it home last night,” Frankie said to her brother.
He grunted. “I called Mac. He brought your stupid car back earlier this morning.”
“I owe Mac a thank you,” she replied, wondering who Mac was. Frankie was just glad to have her brother back.
Frankie chewed the inside of her cheek as she took in her brother. His eyes were sunken and his skin pale. When he moved, he was slow, as if just living hurt. Trouble had struck last night, and she hadn’t been there to stop it. Not that Colton would tell her. He screwed the top back onto the jar of peanut butter in his hands and tossed the spoon into the sink before shuffling past her toward his bedroom.
Whatever happened the night before was done and over, never to be brought up again.
“Your boyfriend isn’t half bad,” Colton shouted over his shoulder.
So, Atticus had found Colton for her after all. For a moment, her heart warmed, then she remembered Atticus was nowhere to be found. He’d vanished at some point, without telling her where he was headed.
She ran after Colton and grabbed his sleeve to stop him. “Did he tell you where…?”
Colton pressed his lips into a grim line. He knew, the knowledge sparkling in his eyes, but he wasn’t going to tell her. “Best to stay out of it.”
He yanked his sleeve from her grasp, ducked into his room, and slammed the door behind him. Moments later, she heard the telltale groan of his bedsprings as he collapsed onto the mattress.
Her parents launched a flurry of questions at her about Atticus and her relationship with him. They asked her why she had lied about them being co-workers and not a couple. They even took the time to tell her that she didn’t have to hide things from them.
Frankie wished that was true. She hid a monster inside herself. While the monster had behaved well over the last few days, she couldn’t forget what it was capable of. Carnage and destruction had fueled the beast for the last year. She hoped those days were over, but she couldn’t be sure.
Especially if Atticus left.
Frankie didn’t think he would leave her. They had a bond, a tether hooked deep in their souls that would always draw them back together again. She fended off her parents’ questions before fumbling out the door. Her keys trembled in her hands. Anyone else would have thought it was from the cold, considering she hadn’t stopped to grab her jacket.
Just as she threw open the Volkswagen’s door, her brother opened his window. He leaned out it and asked what she was doing.
“I need to find him,” she said, breathless. Her wolf paced and bared its teeth. The creature was restless without Atticus. She would only get worse the longer Atticus was gone.
Colton sighed. He slammed his window shut. Frankie thought that was the end of the argument until the front door flew open and Colton stormed down the steps.
“What are you doing?” she snapped.
Colton swiped the keys from her hand. She protested, but he didn’t pause to listen. He folded himself into the driver’s seat of the Volkswagen. She would have laughed at how silly he looked had her wolf not been a nervous wreck.
She swallowed her pride and raced to the passenger side. That didn’t mean she would leash her tongue though. As soon as she shut her door, she laid into him.
“Just because you’re a foot taller than me doesn’t mean you get to push me around. I’m always going to be the older sibling.”
Colton slammed the car into reverse and made her jerk back in her seat as he backed out of the driveway. “My beast is bigger than yours,” he said.
She could feel her wolf baring its teeth, aching to prove that it was not the underdog. It would always be the top dog. How else would she mate a dragon? Atticus was hers. He belonged to her in every way. The beast in him responded to her alone. She wasn’t just a puppy.
“What do you know that I don’t? Spit it out because I’m tired of not knowing shit.”
Colton cut a sidelong glance at her. He twisted his hands along the steering wheel like he was biding his time to think. If he hadn’t been driving, she would have wrung his neck. She could tell that he was trying to protect her. She had already faced Devin and brought him to his knees.
“How the hell did you manage to find a dragon for a mate, Fran? How did you get mixed up in their stupid turf wars? Dragons aren’t kind creatures. They’re territorial and greedy and absolute assholes.”
That didn’t sound like Atticus at all. That wasn’t the man who helped push cars back onto the highway during blizzards. That wasn’t the man who climbed into a bathtub with her while she was losing control. Colton’s interactions with Devin had colored his view of dragons.
She groaned, a sound that turned into a vicious growl. All she wanted was to know where her mate had gone. Atticus should have been in bed with her that morning. He could have left a note or even a text for her. She checked her phone, but there was nothing.
“Where is he, Colton? What do you know that you’re keep
ing from me?”
Colton heaved a sigh, perhaps tired of her pushing the same issue over and over. He would have to get used to it because she wouldn’t back down until he answered.
“I don’t know how much to tell you,” Colton said. “I know you, and you’re going to think everything is your fault. When you feel guilty, you tend to get a bit mean.”
Frankie opened her mouth to argue, but quickly closed it again when she realized her brother was right. Of course, he was right. He had lived with her for most of his life.
She studied his profile, noting the gaunt shadows of his cheeks and the bit of blood on the collar of his shirt. Something had happened while she slept. Perhaps before she fell asleep, while she and Atticus were under the shelter of the gazebo.
Guilt stirred in her gut, just like her brother said it would. She tried to tamp down on the aggression that built up inside her. The wolf growled and the sound escaped her.
“Don’t you dare shift while I’m driving,” Colton warned her.
“You can’t tell me what to do,” she shot back.
Colton stared at her for a long moment, lips parted in shock. He didn’t look back to the windshield until they hit a bump in the road. Frankie twisted to make sure they hadn’t hit a rabbit, but it was only a pothole made deeper by the years of ice in the area.
“Damn, you’re a dominant shifter,” Colton said with a whistle. “I never would have thought my little sister could be a dominant beast. I didn’t know you had it in you.”
“What does that even mean?” This world still held too many secrets. She was tired of feeling dumb. Her wolf pushed to take over, clawing at her from the inside out. It understood the ways of its own world and wouldn’t get lost in the woes of misinformation like she was.
She mumbled something at her beast and forced it back.
“Shifters have different levels of dominance. The more dominant shifters can use their voice to give commands to the submissive shifters. Your beast is stronger and more assertive than mine and I’m pretty dominant. I shouldn’t be surprised if you were meant for a dragon. I can only imagine how difficult life alone with a dominant beast could have been.”
She grinned, pleased with herself. Her beast acted like this was something she should have known all along. The wolf was a fighter.
Frankie’s grin fell away when her brother slammed on the brakes. She threw out her arms to brace herself against the dashboard. Just as she turned to yell at her brother, she noticed the darkness outside the windshield.
At first, she couldn’t make sense of what she saw. Last she checked, it was still early in the morning. No storm could make it this dark outside. What she saw was not a storm or a strange shift in time. Instead, she made out the vague shapes of scales as the form slithered around her car. Her heart lurched into her throat where it desperately tried to escape to save itself from the impending danger.
Her wolf’s growl filled the car, but when the dragon outside bent and peered through her window, she was reminded of just how large the dragon was. Her wolf was tiny in comparison. She might have a dominant beast, but she doubted her dominance could stop something as large as the dragon outside the Volkswagen.
“He found us,” Colton whispered.
She stilled. This wasn’t a movie, though. The beast outside could still see her even if she didn’t move. The beast grabbed the roof of her car, the crunch of metal roaring in her ears.
She protested, without thinking, but the sound was drowned out by the beast’s rumbling snarl. Colton didn’t have to say anything. She knew who she was looking at. Here was the man she kicked in the balls the day before, and she knew he would be here looking for retribution.
The bloodstains on her brother’s collar made sense while she stared into the yellow abyss of the beast’s eye. Devin hadn’t been able to take his anger out on Frankie because Atticus had stolen her away. Her brother, on the other hand, had been trapped at the party. Her brother paid the price for her bravery.
She would have snapped at Colton for not telling her sooner, but the dragon hooked a claw in her door and ripped it open. Another biting comment reached her tongue but couldn’t get past her lips.
Colton poured out the other side of the Volkswagen. He shouted at the beast, but Frankie couldn’t understand the words. Her heart thundered too loud, drowning out everything around her while the dragon cut her seatbelt with its sharp claws and plucked her from her seat.
This was not how she thought her holiday would go.
***
Atticus left the meeting feeling better than he had in years. He stepped outside, Althea hot on his heels. She pulled her jacket tighter around her even though the air was warmer than it had been the day before. If she shivered, it was from fear of what would be coming. Atticus waited for her to rescind her offer. The pack could stay out of this fight.
They didn’t have to be a part of it to benefit in the end.
Atticus knew he would win against Devin. There was no doubt in his mind who was the stronger dragon. Devin held onto what he’d been given because he knew he couldn’t build an empire like that on his own. Devin wasn’t half the man Atticus could be.
All Atticus had to do was step into the role he should have been playing all along. Before he burrowed, Atticus had been a guardian. He hadn’t allowed himself to be anything more. Fear that his beast would hurt someone had kept him back. Now that he had Frankie in his life, he could see himself reflected in her.
She made sure he could see himself as he truly was, not as a monster, but as a man. He’d needed more before burrowing, but no one had been able to give it to him. Not so long as he kept himself apart from the pack. He’d been his own worst enemy and he hadn’t even realized it.
Now his worst enemy was Devin. His cousin had hurt Colton in Frankie’s place. Just thinking about it made Atticus’s skin hot. The smell of burning fabric tickled his nose and forced him to rein in his beast. He didn’t want to pull it back, he wanted to unleash it on Devin’s unsuspecting head. Atticus couldn’t rain hell from above just yet.
Althea needed to get the more submissive shifters away from Devin. Once they were somewhere else, those who wanted to fight would come back to help Atticus. They wanted to make a stand, and Atticus couldn’t deny them. This fight was for them, too.
Atticus pulled his phone from his pocket. The minutes loaded onto it were dwindling, but he missed Frankie’s voice. He wondered if she was even awake yet.
“You’ve known her for two days,” Althea said. “Are you sure she’s the one? This isn’t some kind of puppy love because she happened to be there when you woke up?”
Atticus snarled before remembering himself. He straightened. “I wouldn’t have awakened at all if it weren’t for her.”
Althea held up her hands before her. “I’m just making sure because I have a cute cousin who needs a man in her life. If Francine is the one for you, then who am I to argue?”
Atticus shook his head. Instead of calling Frankie, he decided to surprise her at home and pocketed his phone. Althea and the others waved as he hopped back into Colton’s truck. Atticus thought about what he could bring home to Frankie that would make up for disappearing. Did she like donuts? Pastries? Pancakes?
He wondered what his mate preferred until he noticed a blue car on the side of the road. The shape of the Beetle was unmistakable, down to the Adventure sticker on her bumper. Only, the car was missing its passenger side door. The door rested in the field not far away, surrounded by familiar footprints.
Atticus slammed on the brakes and stared at the wreck before him, numb for ten seconds before rage made smoke curl from beneath his fingers. Frankie’s car was wrecked. Atticus scanned the field and the road, but found only Colton, looking bereft.
Atticus’s dragon thrashed. His skull ached as he shoved his door open and leapt onto the open road. Pavement groaned under his feet with each step. The dragon wanted out. It wanted to take to the skies t
o find Frankie, until a familiar scent forced him to stop.
Devin.
“What happened?” Atticus asked, his voice sharp and demanding while the beast fought to break free.
Colton didn’t say a word. Not at first. A minute ticked by like Colton was getting his story together. Atticus couldn’t wait any longer. Moving faster than he had in ages, he pinned the young man to the crushed Volkswagen.
“I asked you what happened,” Atticus growled.
Colton pressed his eyes shut, but didn’t flinch away from Atticus. This close, Atticus could see the tears running down his cheeks.
“She wanted to find you. I-I-I thought I could take her to you, but I wanted to talk to her first, so I just drove around. She didn’t…she didn’t even notice that I wasn’t going anywhere.”
While Colton stalled for time to talk to his sister, Devin must have flown overhead and tracked them. That was the only thing that made sense to Atticus. He released Colton. It wasn’t the young shifter’s fault. Not really. Atticus was livid but directing his anger at Colton would change nothing.
Too much had happened in the past forty-eight hours. A mate had fallen into Atticus’s hands, giving him a reason to want to live again. Atticus tried to weave himself into her life, but he hadn’t anticipated how messy it would become. He couldn’t hover over her shoulder and keep her safe at all times, no matter how much he wanted to.
“Get in the truck,” Atticus commanded. “You’re going to help me find her.”
Colton was the youngest shifter in the pack. Devin hadn’t just grabbed Colton as a way to get back at Frankie. Atticus doubted Devin even knew the two were related. Colton just happened to be an easy target for Devin, as the weak tended to prey on the weaker. Colton wouldn’t be weaker for long.
Already, Colton rolled his shoulders and raised his chin. He got into the truck, all the while keeping a look of determination on his face when Atticus suspected the shifter wanted nothing more than to fall apart. Colton would be a strong ally to have in the future, as he grew older.
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