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The white tiger was already running down the hill, and through the trees she could see something blurred and brown.
“Is that….is that a cougar?” she asked, gunning it on the straightaway.
“Saber-toothed tiger.” Lucia pointed out the front window. “Watch out!”
A massive grizzly bolted in front of them and turned, running with them. The sky was getting darker by the moment.
“Is that Damon Daye?” she asked, terrified as she saw the monster in the rearview.
“Sure is, and out in broad daylight, which means he doesn’t give a fuck who sees him burn these woods to ash.”
“I don’t feel right leaving Gunner!”
“Lucas has him.”
“I don’t feel right!” she yelled, hitting the brakes.
Lucia reached across the console and grabbed her face, jammed it toward the window. “Your man is there! Drive!”
The scarred, dark-furred grizzly was bolting down the hill through the trees, and the silverback was running on all fours farther into the trees.
Lucia shoved her leg down to hit the accelerator. “Go if you want to live!”
The dragon’s wings were ripping smaller trees from the ground around them, and the car zoomed forward with the force of the wind as she gunned it. The back tires spun out at every curve in the road, and she looked at Lucia to see fear in her eyes as she held onto the dashboard, bracing for fire.
A stream of flames lit up the woods behind them.
“Why is he doing this?” she asked breathlessly. “He’s one of your people.”
“His flames aren’t for us,” Lucia said grimly. “No one will ever find your abductors.”
Wide-eyed, Hallie looked up at the rearview to see the dragon diving down from the sky. He scooped earth into his jaws and pulled up, ashes streaming from his mouth as he beat his massive wings against the wind currents.
Until this moment, she hadn’t realized.
She hadn’t known.
She’d never really understood why humans had talked about shifters with a quiet fear and reverence.
She cast a glance out her window to see Gunner easily keeping pace with her car, his ears back. He cast her an empty glance and kept running.
Now she understood.
Humans weren’t the top of the food chain, like they tried to convince themselves they were.
Shifters were.
Chapter Fourteen
The others had left hours ago.
Hallie sat on the front porch of Corey’s house with an oversized hoodie on, a glass of red wine next to her. She’d found her phone on the side of the road, and though the screen was cracked, she could still see if texts came through. Gunner still hadn’t responded.
She didn’t understand. Was he still a bear? Maybe he needed time in the woods. Or maybe they were having a meeting about what had happened. She wished she had the numbers of some of the Warlanders so she could ask.
Lucia had come back with her, and told her to hang low for a couple of days and stay out of town.
She’d watched the news footage of the blue dragon burning the woods, but it was shaky cell-phone footage from far away. It was lucky that no one had seen them all fleeing the mountain.
