Jade Crew: Fallen Bear (A BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (Ridgeback Bears Book 7)

by Amelia Jade

  She swallowed hard, trying to summon the tattered shreds of her courage. As she began to gather them, Ferro spoke again, casting her spirit to the winds.

  “Some fights are worth fighting. This one... perhaps you are right, perhaps it is. But even if that were so, I cannot.” His voice suddenly returned to normal, and the power fled as quickly as it had appeared, which was almost as frightening. “You see, he has my granddaughter.”

  “This dragon, he kidnapped your granddaughter?”

  “Essentially yes, that is an apt way of describing it,” Ferro replied.

  Victoria thought furiously, trying to find a way to convince Ferro that he had to take action, despite the harm that might come of it. There had to be something that would make him come around. If he wouldn’t react to threats to the Valley, then she would have to convince him that Luthor/Mirrnolax would always be a threat to his family.

  “If he wins, he won’t set her free,” she said. “Not if it means keeping you neutral in his plans. He’ll hold her hostage until he’s strong enough to do whatever he wants”

  “There will always be someone stronger,” Ferro said, as if her concerns didn’t matter. “This is something I am prepared to live with.”

  There it was! The opening she needed, though Victoria hadn’t recognized it until he said those exact words. She tried not to smile triumphantly as she played her card.

  “But is your granddaughter prepared to deal with knowing about all the people you let die because of your inaction? Would she prefer that you acted, even if it meant her death, because it was the right thing to do? Or would she be ashamed that you stood by and did nothing simply to save her, while so many others died?”

  Ferro hesitated.

  It wasn’t much—barely a pause in his well-practiced movements as he finished unlocking the door. The ancient dragon straightened and turned to face her once more.

  “I,” and to her shock, Ferro stopped mid-sentence as he thought about it. “I do not know,” he finished at last.

  There was something about seeing a dragon shifter so uncertain that worried Victoria. Everything Ferro did, from his measured steps to the even way his hand cleaned the bar despite him never having to look down at his work, spoke of a confidence so strong that it beggared comparison. And yet, she had managed to make him unsure. She desperately hoped that was a good thing, and that Ferro didn’t decide to just kill her because she had embarrassed him.

  She sighed in relief when he laid down the cloth and looked at her, instead of flying over the bar.

  The silence between them grew, but still Victoria didn’t say anything. Ferro was clearly thinking deeply about her remarks, and she didn’t want to antagonize him while he made a decision she wasn’t sure she could make if put in his place.

  “You know,” he said at last, “I think Karlie would probably side with you. She is still young, after all, and doesn’t truly understand how long she will live for. She cares so much for you short-lived species in a way that I’m not sure I will ever understand.” The great shifter sighed. “But I don’t think she would forgive me for sitting this out, even if it meant harm, or even death, to her.”

  Ferro looked at her heavily. “We dragons value our offspring, you know. There are so few of us that each one is utterly precious. I was of the mind that I had to do everything in my power to keep her alive. But even if I kept her body breathing, the knowledge of what I had allowed to happen to do so would likely kill her on the inside, and that, that is what I value most,” he said heavily.

  She grimaced, unsure of what to say. Her elation that Ferro would intervene—and perhaps be able to save the lives of her mate and his friends—was tempered by the fact that she may have just condemned a young dragon shifter to death.

  She prayed that someone, somewhere, would forgive her for that one day.

  “So you’ll fight?” she asked breathlessly.

  “I will speak to Mirrnolax,” Ferro said, his voice hardening. “He will be made to see reason.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Evan

  “Shit,” he swore as Luthor/Mirrnolax exited the vehicle.

  “This changes nothing,” Gabriel said, his voice strong and steady. “We all knew it was going to go this way. We stick with the plan.”

  Evan wanted to say he felt as calm and brave as Gabriel did, but the sight of the dragon shifter was doing a serious job on his nerves.

  They watched as Luthor gestured for his men to clear a space around him. Once the men had backed up to what seemed like a ridiculous distance, Luthor knelt to one knee. Everyone was watching now, Evan knew, entranced by what they were about to see.

  Enemy or not, the appearance of a dragon shifter in their true form was something most shifters never witnessed in their lifetime. It would be the first—and likely last—time Evan witnessed such an event, and he was determined to make the most of it. His eyes were glued to the kneeling figure, watching as his long trenchcoat fell around his body.

  The air began to shimmer in a sphere around Luthor. It was the size of his body at first, but then it began to expand, growing at a rapid rate, until it was at least a hundred feet across, if not more. Nothing happened for a moment, and Evan wondered if something had gone wrong.

  “Oh,” he said in a very small voice as the figure within the sphere suddenly sprouted a massive tail, the core of the body doubling in size every second. Two huge bulges appeared at the shoulders, and in the blink of an eye massive leathery wings erupted from them, instinctively curling themselves around the form, obscuring the final changes to the figure. The shimmering sphere disappeared, allowing them their first real glimpse at what a dragon shifter looked like.

  The first thing that caught Evan’s eye were the scales. They were huge, easily the size of a medieval shield, and they covered the dragon everywhere but his wings. Blacker than the darkest night, they still managed to glitter with a deadly, distracting beauty. The blackened charcoal wings swept back, revealing the pointed snout for the first time.

  Though he had known better, Evan had still half-expected to see tendrils of smoke wafting up from within the dragon’s nose. No smoke appeared however, which drew his attention to the great yellow eyes, oval slits breaking the monotony of the scales. The orb nearest him narrowed as the dragon stirred at last, focusing his attention on the gryphons that stalked back and forth with agitation behind Evan.

  Then it spoke.

  “I will deal with those two,” Mirrnolax said, his voice rumbling across the distance like an avalanche, the noise almost a roar without having to try. “End the rest of them.”

  The leader nodded and signaled to his men.

  “Stand ready,” Gabriel said, and around him the shifters of Genesis Valley called forth for their animals.

  Massive animals, bigger than any that naturally walked the earth ripped from within the human bodies, taking a fraction of a second to do what the dragon had needed almost a full dozen seconds to achieve.

  Evan was one of the last, along with the other Alphas. They looked at each other, exchanging nods. Then he called to his bear and fell to all fours, his weight shaking the earth. Across from them their enemies were doing the same thing.

  Evan looked to Gabriel, who did his best impression of a human nod.

  The roar started somewhere within the Jade Crew, though Evan wasn’t sure who. It grew as bear after bear began trumpeting their defiance, hurling all their anger, rage, and fear into one ear-numbing sound that reached out and lashed at their enemies.

  Then, led by Gabriel, they charged at their enemies.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Victoria

  She was flying.

  The wonder of it threatened to distract her from their mission, but she couldn’t help but admire the beauty of the world when witnessed from above. The landscape spread out far below her. The sheer size and scope of the planet was impressed on her once again, and for the first time in a long time, Victoria felt small compared to the vastness of t
he nature around her.

  “It’s beautiful,” she whispered.

  “That it is,” Ferro replied. She hadn’t expected him to hear her over the rushing wind, but he had. “I often remind myself to get out more often, to simply fly, but I rarely do it.”

  She nodded, understanding the commotion it must cause, especially in the digital day and age they lived in. If her reaction when Ferro had shifted outside his bar was anything to go by, she felt sorry for him. Any time he let his dragon out, he was probably mobbed by people who wanted a picture, or his autograph.

  “Over there!” she cried as the plateau upon which the LMC complex rested finally came into view.

  Ferro banked toward it, and Victoria felt her heart stop.

  Atop the flattened area, a battle was being waged. Everywhere she could see, shifters warred with other shifters. Bodies littered the landscape, some of them trying to crawl away, and others lying there unmoving.

  Though it had mostly devolved into a melee, there were still two lines. Even as she watched, they pulled apart for a moment. As they did, a third force appeared. It was small in numbers compared to the first two, but it came charging out of the forest on the far side of the battleground, and slammed into the side of the force that appeared to be attacking the LMC. They hit the enemy hard, and the surprise shifted the focus of the battle. She watched as the attackers moved forces to try and counter this new attack.

  Which was exactly what the defenders wanted, she realized. From two very heavily armored vehicles along the opposite side of the battlefield, figures began to emerge.

  “It’s the women!” she shouted. Emma had told her that she and the others were going to be a part of this fight, no matter what Garrett wanted, but that had been all she was willing to share. In the chaos of the evacuation from their apartment and the rush up to the Ridgeback Lodge, Victoria’s phone had died, and she had been unable to find out more.

  Now, as she watched in mixed horror and admiration, the women emerged from the vehicles, moving toward the shifters. They were holding something in their hands, but it wasn’t until shifters began to wobble and fall that Victoria realized they were guns.

  Tranquilizer guns, she thought in shock. There were over a dozen of them, and they walked forward with fierce determination. Any shifter that came at them was met with a hailstorm of darts, and went down almost instantly. She recognized the heavily pregnant Emma and several other Jade crew mates, but the rest were a mystery to her. Perhaps they were the mates from the other crews.

  Either way, the attack seemed to have stunned both sides, but the defenders reacted swiftly to the unexpected advantage. They were still heavily outnumbered, but the women were putting a serious dent in their opponents’ numbers. Two of the defenders peeled off and began to escort the women. As Victoria watched, any shifter that was brought down with darts was promptly dispatched by the pair of defenders as their powerful jaws ripped the tender skin out from under their heads.

  What a horrible way to die, she thought with a shudder. Still, better them than her friends.

  Two powerful gryphons that had been walking behind the defenders’ lines leapt over them, moving to encircle a huge black rock. It was only when the rock moved that Victoria realized it wasn’t stone, but in fact another dragon.

  “Luthor!” she shouted, pointing at him.

  “I see him,” Ferro said.

  The dragon eyed the two gryphons. One of them crouched suddenly and leapt at him, but the dragon simply flicked one of his wings with almost contemptuous ease, and the powerful half-eagle half-lion shifter went tumbling away as limp as a doll, crashing through the walls of the mansion.

  The other gryphon looked at its companion’s body for a moment before it continued to prowl around the edge of the dragon’s reach.

  He’s just trying to keep it busy, she realized.

  “Hold on tight,” Ferro said.

  She yelped in surprise as he folded his wings in and suddenly began to plummet toward the battlefield. The brief warning the dragon had given her was barely enough for her to throw her powerful arms around his neck and hold on for dear life as the ground came rushing up fast.

  At the last moment Ferro unfurled his wings and beat them heavily, sending up a shower of debris that forced the two sides to back away from each other, giving room for the arrival of the second dragon.

  One of the bears must have noticed her as she slipped down from Ferro’s neck, and the next thing she knew, Evan was running at her, his powerful arms sweeping her up into a rib-crushing hug.

  “I thought you were lost to me,” he said in her ear, the carnage of the battlefield forgotten momentarily as she surrendered to his touch.

  “I forgot to charge my phone,” she said apologetically.

  Evan froze, and looked at her. Then he laughed. “What a silly thing,” he said.

  Then he kissed her. The electric charge couldn’t be denied, and she kissed him back wildly, ignoring the stares she knew had to be directed their way. Victoria didn’t care. This was her man, and damn anyone that thought less of her for sharing one last kiss with him. She loved him, and that was all that mattered. The kiss seemed to go on forever, and she reveled in each moment of sinful luxury that his touch brought.

  Until the black dragon shattered it all.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Evan

  He heard the noise coming, but didn’t know what it signified. It was like a great whistling, the sudden sound of air rushing by.

  Breaking the kiss with Victoria he followed the direction of the wind, only to find a sight he wished he had never seen.

  The great lungs on the glittering black dragon swelled, and he suddenly realized what was about to happen.

  “Dragon fire!” he yelled an instant before white-blue flames vomited from the dragon’s mouth.

  The flames tracked across the field toward the remaining gryphon, Valen. The agile shifter darted aside, though he was still battered by the heat of the flames and went rolling across the parking lot, his hind leg blistered beyond recognition, flesh peeling off of it as the stench of burnt skin hit Evan’s nose.

  That was the least of this worries however, as he realized the dragon fire was coming their way.

  “Run!” he cried out to Victoria, but it was too late.

  The flames swept toward them faster than they could move. In a desperate bid to protect the woman he loved, Evan tried to put himself between her and the oncoming pillar of death.

  Or tried to.

  At the last second, a thin ochre membrane swept between them and the flames. He saw the flames hit it, pushing the membrane back until it impacted upon his back, sending him and Victoria flying. They hit the ground roughly, tumbling over each other until they came to a halt. But they were alive.

  Looking up, he realized it was one of the massive wings of the dragon Victoria had ridden in on. It had to be Ferro, he realized. The dragon was titanic, bigger than even Mirrnolax.

  And it was pissed.

  “ENOUGH!”

  The air cracked as the word split it like a knife. Evan cried out as his ears reacted painfully to the physical pressure that Ferro had managed to put into one spoken word.

  Far above him the rust-colored dragon spat a ball of flame that slammed into the snout of the raven-scaled enemy.

  The black dragon shook it off easily.

  “Go home,” it said. “Or have you forgotten already?”

  “I have forgotten nothing. I have only realized that Karlie would never forgive me if I let you do this,” Ferro replied, his voice hard as stone.

  Victoria pulled at Evan’s singed shirt as he scrambled over next to her. “Karlie is his granddaughter. Luthor has her somewhere.”

  Evan nodded.

  The black dragon was busy evaluating his larger opponent. “You would sacrifice her for them?” he asked with a sarcastic flick of his wing at the bear shifters.

  “It is what she would want me to do. You should know that. After all,
she is your daughter.”

  Mirrnolax laughed. “You’ll have to do better than that father,” he shot back.

  Evan’s eyes met Victoria’s. “Did he just say what I think he did?”

  She nodded, her face looking stunned.

  “Holy shit,” Evan said as the implications of that settled in.

  By then, the other shifters had gathered around them. He looked at Gabriel and Garrett, seeing the same realization dawn on their faces.

  It was fairly well known that Luthor/Mirrnolax was one of the first dragons. The first fifteen dragons were the elders of the dragon world, and they formed the Dragon Council that presided over all decisions made that affected dragon shifters.

  Legend foretold that the first fifteen were all descended from one dragon. A dragon of immense power. So if Luthor was descended from Ferro, that meant…

  “Holy shit,” he said again. Ferro was the First dragon. The origin of the species. He swallowed hard at that realization, suddenly extremely thankful that Ferro was on their side.

  “You truly care so little for your own offspring?” Ferro asked, shaking his massive head sadly.

  The black dragon snarled in rage. “She is nothing to me!” He whipped his head around to look at the bear shifter who commanded his invading army. “What are you waiting for? Finish them!” Then he turned his attention back toward Ferro.

  “Look out!” Evan yelled, and the bear shifters all ran for cover as the black dragon unleashed another pillar of flame, this time aimed directly at Ferro.

  With a hiss of irritation and anger, Ferro launched himself at Mirrnolax. Evan could hear the hiss and pop of scales as the flames washed over the rust-red dragon, but whether they hurt or not, it didn’t slow the immense beast down. The two titans collided and with an angry cry they tumbled down the road away from the mansion, their flailing wings and flicking tails knocking trees and other debris loose as they went.