Page 95 of Damien’s Mate

When Brandon said ‘backup’, he wasn’t messing around.

Two of the shifters—a huge man with tangled black dreadlocks, and another with a grenade launcher and crazy eyes—walked up and flanked Brandon. The one with the grenade launcher looked so much like Brandon, he had to be his dad.

The prince looked momentarily taken aback, but his ego rallied quickly. “These Wild Dragons and fur creatures dare not attack us. All of them have to abide by the rules of your Council—”

Brandon broke in. “Actually, they really don’t.”

He pointed to the largest black dragon. “That’s Emon, the Darkwing Dragon, King of the Draken House of Al-Maddeiri, and this is his clan.”

Emon folded his wings and dropped toward the ground, turning human for the last few yards and landing on his feet next to Brandon.

Brandon went on, “He’s also the totalitarian dictator of his own private interdimensional country.” Herrick looked confused. Brandon gazed flatly at him. “That means, he answers to no one.”

King Emon—who also had the crazy eyes—bared his teeth in a scary grin. “All that power. No consequences. Some days it makes me almost giddy, knowing I can get away with anything.”

Brandon pointed to the blue dragon, who had a man on her back. “That’s Princess Askleii, formerly of the House of Akkabi. Her mate is Israel Jonas, Master of the Dragonstone.”

The prince turned pale. “You lie! The Dragonstone was lost millennia ago.”

Israel looked down at his right palm, and faked surprise. “Found it!” He held up his hand, and in the palm was a gold disc with a gemstone in the middle of it.

Like, embedded into his palm. Permanently.

Israel made a sweeping gesture with the Dragonstone, and all the Drakens’ portals winked out simultaneously.

Prince Herrick swallowed hard.

Brandon gestured to the man with the dreadlocks. “This is Flynn. He’s former Lion Guard, and he’s a little… disillusioned with the whole concept. Right now, he’s trying to decide if he should claw your tiny lion army to pieces.”

Flynn drawled, “I’m thinking I could just shoot them, and call it a day.” Another enormous man, standing close behind him, said, “Yes. Beer after!” They fist bumped.

Brandon said, “And this guy right here with the grenade launcher? That’s my dad.”

Almost too quickly to see, the man lifted the grenade launcher and shot at one of the Makek-Dur Draken. It barely dodged in time.

The grenade exploded high up in the sky in a ball of fire. Seconds later there was a secondary detonation, and glitter rained down on the Makek-Dur.

Brandon’s lips twitched.

“He’s got a crazy-ass homicidal panther inside him, and nobody has any clue what he might take it into his head to do.” He paused. “Everyone says I’m just like him.”

Brandon stepped forward and fixed Prince Herrick with his ‘impale you against the wall’ stare. “We know you’re just a group of washed-up rebels without the support of the Royal House of Makek-Dur. We know where you live, and so do our world-walking allies. We can get to you any time, anywhere.”

“And kill you in your sleep,” added Xander.

“So I’m thinking you should just get the hell out of my territory, and never even think about my crew again. Or we will hunt you down and destroy every fucking one of your scaly asses.”

The blue dragon dipped her wing and Israel jumped down to stand next to Emon. The two of them raised their right hands and blue magic streaked out, merging to form a giant portal behind the Makek-Dur forces.

Mist swirled inside it, faster and faster, until the Makek-Dur Draken and Lion Guard were sucked into it. Damien could see them getting smaller and smaller, arms and legs and wings flailing. When they disappeared, the portal vanished.

For a moment there was complete silence, and then cheers broke out. Then they all started talking at once.

Damien turned and gathered Lila in his arms, burying his face in her hair. It was over. It was finally over, and they were together. She looked up at him. “Nice work, hooman. Thanks for coming to find me.”

He grinned down at her. “Not a hooman anymore, Lioness.”

She said softly, “You’ll always be my hooman. I love you.”