“Stay out of Mutable business, enforcer,” Duncan replies from my left, conveniently allowing me to place his position.
I give a hard eye roll. “Fuck off,” I say, and my blade's already flying. A satisfying meaty thunk and yelp have me curling my lips.
My focus returns to the Mutable. “Drop the chick, dragon.”
His eyes are like a snake's. Golden green, bisected by oblong-shaped inky pupils.
They're dilated, eating away at the smoldering peridot color.
Those riveting eyes fix on me. “No. This transitioning female is mine now.” He glances at where I stabbed Duncan, his eyes moving back to me. “However, I do appreciate you taking one more Mutable out of the equation for my goals.”
This guy. “Fine. Whatever fuels your fire, dragon-boy.”
“Narah,” Murphy says from behind me.
“What?” I turn slightly, grumpy from all the interference but still keeping a wary eye on Dragon.
The males who are connected to Talyn stand there—Merck and Arden.
God. Can't catch a break. Okay. “You two,” I wave my finger between the two, “flank dragon, get him all hot and bothered and we'll snag Talyn.”
Murphy says, “You do understand you're telling the Mutable what your intentions are?”
“Yup.” I nod. “Like he's wondering about my intentions?” I snort. As an enforcer, my intentions are always known.
Big exhale from Murph. Exasperation. Hear it a lot.
“I am Alpha to all,” the Dragon says.
My eyebrows rise, and I fight yawning; I'm all draggy. And hormonally pissed off. But Dragon doesn't know that.
Who the hell wants to deal with an Enforcer with all-day-morning-sickness, and who is also conveniently, a vampire.
Quick answer: nobody.
I feel the Mutables at my back. I guess it's not too great a sign that none of them will come near the dragon even with the prize of Talyn in the mix.
“Here's the thing,” I begin, “you just lay the client down right there, and I'll let you live, big boy.”
The hard edges of his lips twist. “You're charming, but I must refuse.”
Figures.
I don't wait for Arden or Merck to make their play. They've got my back or not.
I charge, low and hard.
Dragon's eyes widen at my speed.
Surprise, ember-dick.
Being tiny has its uses. Like now. I plow into his knees, wrapping his lower body and rolling as I do.
Heat warms my back.
Shit.
I tuck hard and begin to heave his large body with my momentum. A vague hiss ensues and I know Murphy is preparing to strike.
Dragon falls with Talyn.
Their body weight pins me.
Oh shit. Not feelinʼ it.
Dragon's eyes meet mine. A forked tongue slides out.
I pride myself on having nerves of steel. But when that hot tongue tastes my face, a scream wedges itself in my throat.
“Narah!” Murphy bellows from above Dragon's shoulder.
Fangs sink into Dragon's neck as half-changed Lycans each take a piece with their teeth.
A roaring fills my ears and heat encapsulates me.
Stealing the scream I never get out.
2
Talyn
I remember when saunas were in vogue.
It was the cool thing to do. Work out, use the sauna, cleanse your pores.
It's overrated.
My eyes pop open to the smell of singed flesh and air that tastes like metal.
Drake stands above me, his mouth opening and fire pouring out.
Oh. My. God.
Maybe I can just crawl away. Seems to be a theme.
I subtly begin to back away from between his legs then my eyes peg his dick.
It's very... sizable.
My core pulses, enjoying the view.
That again.
I close my eyes in defeat. First violence, now this irritating lust issue. It doesn't matter, I tell myself, if I can just get away.
I scoot back as Drake blankets the room with fire.
Fur shrinks on bodies, melting against skin without a protective barrier. I gulp, breathing through my mouth. The smell of burning flesh, and the blood flowing underneath is gorge-worthy.
Enforcer Adrienne is hanging onto Drake's legs. She can't get purchase because they're covered with scales.
Time to go.
Drake seems to ignore her. Every subtle shift of his weight, and the hardened shapes shimmer like multifaceted jewels.
I'm mesmerized.
Sweat breaks out on my forehead.
The shrieking and chaos of the room is total. There doesn't seem to be a piece of silence in all the world.
A vampire hangs off Drake's shoulder like a tick with fangs. When my gaze catches sight of Arden I'm on my feet before I realize I'm moving.
“No!” I yell.
His spots are running together like melted candle wax, his animal is wheezing, fur standing like strangled patches of singed ivory islands in the raw charred skin that lies beneath.
I run to him.
The fire recedes, vaporing heat shimmers between us.
“Talyn, stop!”
Merck.
I slide in next to Arden, heedless of the torch of Drake's mouth all around us.
My fingertips hover over his wounded skin, unsure where to touch first. An unburned paw lands on my thigh, twice the size of my hand, and I close my fingers around claws meant to kill.
“Arden?” I say brokenly, huge teardrops landing on his charred fur.
He doesn't seem to mind.
“Talyn,” he chokes from the back of his throat, “get out of here.”
I shake my head, making myself dizzy. “Drake can torch us both, I'm not leaving.”
“Yes you are,” Merck jerks me from the floor. My frantic eyes move to Arden's, and he manages to shake his head, his dying eyes encouraging me to leave.
Drake's gaze finds us, and he smiles, striding toward us.
Adrienne rears back, a black glittering opaque blade arcing downward.
She embeds the blade, hilt-deep in his thigh. “That'll stop a truck!” then, “or a dragon.”
He kicks out viciously and Adrienne flies, hitting the nearest wall, and sliding down into a heap. Drake roars, fire leaking from his lips. But he doesn't hurt Narah, though his thigh has to be absolutely killing him.
He limps to her, jerking the blade from his flesh. “I don't hurt pregnant females. But you test my limits.”
Pregnant? I twist to look at her.
Enforcer Adrienne gives me a sullen look. “What?”
“I—I can't believe this!” I say, Merck's hand on my upper arm.
“Let me go! I need to stay with Arden.”
Merck shakes his head. “He's too far gone. No shifter can heal damage that extensive—especially by fire.”
My head feels half-attached at the news. “What?” I ask, shaky.
“He's dying,” Drake says dismissively, whirling in our direction, and beginning to hobble determinedly toward us again.
“Dying?” My voice sounds far away, breathy—bereft. I shake my head, as though by denying Arden's impending death, it won't happen.
“Dick,” Adrienne spits from the wall where Drake flung her.
Drake smirks. “It is the way of the Mutable, female. The leopard knows this.”
The vampire swings from Drake's shoulder, hanging on as iridescent blood flows down his muscular chest.
Arden doesn't even manage a gurgle as Drake steps over his body, reflective eyes dimming as our gazes collide, locking in silent mourning and goodbye.
I shift my eyes to Drake's, boring into him. “If you think that you're going to win me over by killing my best friend, you're sadly mistaken.” My lip trembles, but my chin kicks up.
Drake stops, his unblinking gaze fixed on me.
I cough at the smells in the air, not bothering to wrench my a
rm from Merck's hold, covering my mouth.
“I don't need to win you over. I just need to breed you. Transition you to your true Lanarre wolf.”
I'm so tired of that line.
His forked tongue slides out of his mouth as though licking his lips is the only thing that matters in that moment.
I don't hang around for a round two.
Somewhere in the room, Duncan groans, still bleeding out from the wound Enforcer Adrienne gave him.
Her eyes widen on mine as I jerk my arm from Merck's, sprinting to where Arden lays.
A low growl of warning sounds from Arden. He's still trying to save me, even though he's dying. I duck low, tucking my hands underneath his matted bloody fur.
“No,” I sob.
Crystalline eyes meet mine, the last vibrant thing left of Arden. “I love you, Talyn.”
I know. I know he does—and I ran from what he offered. Transitioning with him and Merck doesn't sound so bad anymore.
A hand falls on my shoulder, ripping me away and Arden's eyes flutter shut, a final breath shuddering out of his failing body.
I lift my hands in front of my face, my fingers come away bloody.
I'm numb. Numb to who has me. To what I'll become.
To my life.
I close my eyes and let the arms that hold me take me where they will.
I might as well be dead, like Arden.
3
Merck
I should've known the change would be this screwed from the beginning. Now I've got a Mutable dragon in the equation, and there's nothing I can do but pray that I can avoid him long enough to get Talyn transitioned.
Enforcer Adrienne heals from the toss by the Mutable, and stands, removing her sanctioned weapon, she levels it at the dragon's back.
“Stand down, Dragon.” Her eyes take in the vampire Enforcer hanging off the dragon's shoulder. “Murphy—let go of him for fuck's sake. I can't take a shot when you're dangling off the perp.”
“I can't,” comes the vamp's muffled reply. His mouth is full of dragon so it's hard to tell.
I grab Talyn, and she's vacantly presence in my arms. Her eyes stare, but no one's home.
Fuck. Shock.
I glance at Arden. He's dead. His human form lies on the floor, naked, pock-marked and razed with severe burns.
I begin my retreat, a look shot at the enforcer which conveys a message I hope she interprets.
Enforcer Adrienne dips her chin, and for the first time in my life, I'm thankful for some form of the law. Or back up. As a Changer it's usually just me.
Arden will never back up anyone again. And no matter how much I loathed his bid for Talyn, he hadn't been a half-bad male. Just been in the wrong place at the exact wrong time kind of thing.
Like now.
“Give me the female,” the dragon warns me.
I hike Talyn up in my arms, leveling a look at the first shifter dragon I've ever laid eyes on. “Torch me, Mutable.”
The dragon smirks, vampire still clinging like a tick with fangs. Dragon reaches behind him to grab the vamp just as the vamp's palms cover his snake-like eyes.
See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, I think randomly.
I whirl, sprinting for the door as a shot's fired. I don't bother to look back, slow down or hesitate. Instead, I clear the front steps of the shitty house, racing down the walk.
I hit the piped top of the chain link fence with one hand, and throw myself over the four foot divide, landing with Talyn held in one arm.
She doesn't stir.
I feel the heat from here. Like a wave from an open furnace, it hits my back like a hot slap.
I keep running.
Run to escape the Dragon, and protect Talyn from a fate of gang-breeding by rabid Mutables. It's not an end for any female.
When I reach the end of the block I turn, facing the carnage behind us. Flames shoot like exploded torpedoes, causing a false orange glow to saturate the night sky.
I don't see the vamp, enforcer—or most importantly, the dragon evacuate the burning house.
I have a pang for the enforcer. A female—and pregnant, though I'm not sure how the dragon knows—left behind to a fiery death.
I gaze down at Talyn.
She is my change—the only female I am responsible for right now.
I will get her to safety—everything else is secondary.
I keep running until I'm where I need to be. Wishing the entire time I could mask as Arden can.
Could.
4
Talyn
My eyes open slowly. Swollen and puffy from the tears.
The smoke, blood and ash of my life flows like a river of singed grief, wrapping my soul, tugging at it like an anchor. Sinking me into a despair I'll never wake from.
It's the only thing where I feel my schooling comes and saves me. My intellect chants the reality.
Arden was my friend. He tried to save me—he also wanted me. He's not human—was not human. My eyes shut against the realization of his death.
I'm not human either. Not really.
The distant tick tock of a clock in the space measures my heartbeat. My despondent thoughts.
“You're awake,” a quiet voice says from close by.
I jerk up and off the couch, tumbling to my knees, and Merck's hand is at my elbow. I look up, trembling.
I give a weary shake of my head. “I can't take much more of this, Merck. Arden's gone, and Drake's tailing me.”
I giggle. Tailing me. Nice word selection, Talyn.
“Hey,” Merck says, voice soothing. He lifts me up by the armpits, and gently sets me back on the couch. I suck in a sob, releasing an exhale so full of grief it scents the air between us. I know it does because Merck's nostrils flare.
Or maybe my breath is bad. I dump my face in my hands and cry.
He silently sits beside me, sliding a strong arm around my shoulders. “I usually change a female within seventy-two hours. I understood your change would be different because you didn't fall within the norms. But I couldn't have guessed this fucked up outcome if I tried. It's, hell—like a pulsevision drama.”
I laugh again. My life. Made for pulsevision. Pathetic. Like those early 21st century reality shows about people famous for being famous.
I groan.
Merck laughs.
I punch him in the thigh.
“Ow,” he says in a mocking voice. “Don't abuse your protector.”
I look up at him, his blue eyes like ice chipped off a glacier, but somehow warm when they gaze at me. “I don't know what to do with all this.” I helplessly flip my palms over on my lap. “Last week, I was a therapist.”
“You still are a therapist for the humans, Talyn.”
I snort. Right. I bet there'd be so many people wanting advice from wolf woman. They'd line up at the door.
“I was a therapist,” I emphasize, and Merck is silent. His arm remains a comforting weight around my shoulders, “but now I am a mouse in a maze. All these men are vying for a chance to be with me. But it's not a flattering thing, Merck. It's not me they want to be with. You—you want to be with me because that's your sole job. You find human women of mixed Lycan blood, and you sex them into a change.”
His lips thin, eyes tightening with my implied put-down. Or not so implied.
“Then Arden, my friend from high school, jumps on the ʻlet's hump Talyn and make her preggersʼ train.” I suck in a breath, shoring myself up. One oxygen hit isn't enough, but I manage to stop shy of hyperventilating. “Then there's the Mutables. What an awful group of nothing but misogynistic fuckers.”
My fists ball.
Merck covers my clenched hands with one of his own.
My sigh is a shudder as his touch ignites another wave of heat from my core, wetting my walls like a mini fire hose.
Merck, for once, doesn't flare his nostrils, make a comment about my ʻreadiness,ʼ or otherwise distract me from the words I need to say. “So there's no going back. I have to s
crew you, so I can avoid this rape fest, then everyone will leave me alone, right?”
Merck blinks at the baldness of my words. “ʻEssentially, yesʼ.”
I cross my arms, shrugging off his big arm, and turn to face him. “What do you mean, ʻessentiallyʼ?”
Subtle color infuses Merck's face, his neck and lower jaw growing ruddy.
“Uh-oh. What are you going to tell me that I'm going to hate?”
He stares back at me silently. “You need to use the bathroom or get some water?”
“Don't patronize me!” I yell. “I'm almost thirty-nine years old. I am not some naïve twenty-something. I have heard horrible things for too many years to be anything other than jaded and indifferent to whatever news you want to unload, so don't try to distract me.”
Merck runs a hand through his golden brown hair, yanking it. His arm leaves me, his palms falling to his jean-clad thighs. “I change you then you're handed over to my Alpha for placement.”
My lungs deflate like a pierced balloon. “Placement?” My eyes search his face, “I'm afraid to ask.”
His features grow wary.
Definitely afraid to ask.
“After I see you through your transition, you'll be assigned a mate that is compatible to you.”
I fold my arms. “You mean, a stud that will have the highest degree of viability with children as the outcome?”
Merck nods, his flush deepening.
Unbelievable. I scoot away from him on the couch. “I can't have children. We've gone over that.”
Merck flops back against the couch, eyes to the ceiling.
I look up too. Black rafters intersect twenty feet above our heads. My eyes travel the space. A large brick wall with a faded gray wash of paint says Foundry in a pale ivory. The cursive is old-fashioned, oversized in an almost cartoonish way. Tall windows sit at my right, framing people just two floors beneath having coffee. Shopping.
Going about their normal day. While nothing is normal for me.
It won't ever be again. I successfully blink back tears.
“Have you never explained this to other women? They just go like good little sheep to the den of inequity to get their husband handed to them?”
His eyes tighten, hardening to ice again. “I wouldn't say it like that.”
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