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I was out of time.
“Stop the car!”
Chapter 23
Evan
Had she lost her mind? She wanted me to pull over and stop the car? There was no fucking way I would allow Tomas’s men to gain access to my mate.
“Evan.” The way Jax said my name, the trepidation in his tone, had me tearing my gaze from the road and the side mirrors, where I was keeping an eye on the car, to glance at Mariah in the rearview mirror.
“Shit.”
My heart skipped a beat. Her fangs had protruded longer than I’d ever seen them. And her eyes. They were that same shade of molten amber they’d been when she partially shifted at the cottage the other day, but this time the pupils had turned to slits. She was vibrating, a look of panic in those dragon eyes as she said it again, the words more muffled this time as she tried to speak through her fangs.
“Stop the car!”
Sofia’s cries turned into wails once more.
“You can control this, Mariah. I know you can. Just remember what we did before.” I gripped the steering wheel even tighter, worry for my mate and what might happen if she was unable to control her impending change feeding my own panic.
Because I had no doubt she was on the verge of a full-on shift. I could sense it in her dragon, too, now that I was focused on her. The presence of the beast within had never been as strong as it was in this moment. I’d never felt it so fully formed, and the awareness of it had my own dragon surging forth.
I gritted my teeth.
“You can do this, Mariah,” Jax said, turning in his seat as he tried to talk her down from the ledge, but I already knew there was no point.
When a dragon was breaking free for the very first time, there was no stopping it.
I jerked the wheel and veered abruptly off the road. I couldn’t let her shift here in the car as we careened down the road. The damage would be unthinkable. Coming to a stop, I threw my door open.
“Stay in the car,” I ordered Jax, an alpha command that left no room for argument. “Don’t let anyone near Sofia.”
“I’ll guard her with my life,” he responded without hesitation.
Mariah flung her door open, practically throwing herself out of the car. I caught her in my arms, the wild look in her eyes causing my heart to thud against my ribcage. She looked absolutely terrified, yet there was a fire burning in those amber eyes like I’d never seen before.
Fierce, raw, primal.
Time seemed to slow down as the sound of screeching tires sounded behind us. I gripped Mariah’s arms and shoved her behind me as I turned to face the men who’d been chasing us. The two of them jumped out of the car, their guns pulled and aimed at our chests.
“No one has to get hurt here,” one of them said. “This can be easy or it can be difficult. It’s your choice. Just hand the girl over and we can all walk away.”
I snarled, the beast within me ready to rip them limb from limb. I would have told them to go fuck themselves, but my own shift was already taking hold, my dragon taking control to protect what was ours.
A resounding crack, sharp and loud as a gunshot, filled the air, and for one terrifying moment I feared the worst as a scream ripped from Mariah’s throat. I spun to face my mate, ruthlessly shoving my dragon back down.
What I saw there took my breath away.
The sound was the breaking and cracking of Mariah’s bones, the ripping of her flesh as her human form melted away, and her scream turned into a vicious roar as her dragon form emerged for the first time.
It only took seconds. A first shift was usually longer, more excruciating, as there was typically resistance. But not only was this my mate, the strongest woman I knew, but my pregnant mate. Dragons were fiercely protective, and right now, she was fighting not just for her life, but for our children.
In the span of a few heartbeats, Mariah had vanished, and in her place stood the most gorgeous dragon I’d ever seen. Deep emerald scales gleamed in the sunlight as she roared again, fanning her wings out wide. Her wingspan had to be at least twenty feet across, if not more.
And she was pissed.
She didn’t hesitate, opening her muzzle wide as a blazing arc of dragon fire erupted from deep within, aimed right at the two men who were rapidly advancing on us. There was hardly time for them to see what was coming, much less react. At the very last second, they flung themselves to the sides of the car. A heartbeat later, the vehicle itself was engulfed in flames that burned brightly, stretching skyward as they consumed everything at once.
