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Aaron’s bright blue eyes were solemn. “Every poison has an antidote, but we’re pretty short on supplies up here. And we can’t be sure of exactly what poison it is. West, we brought the first aid kit from the car, didn’t we? Do you have activated charcoal inthere?”
West’s gloom momentarily lifted. “Probably. We’ve had issues with drugs among the teen shifters, so we like to keep that on hand in case of an overdose. Let me findit.”
As he shuffled through the packs, I went to Nate’s side. The bear shifter leaned his head toward me when I touched the side of his ruggedface.
“I’ll be all right,” he said, a little hoarsely. “The poison will just have to run itscourse.”
But we were so much weaker while two of my alphas could barely sit up. I nuzzled his arm, my helplessness tearing me up inside. My mates needed me, and there was nothing I could do. Even my dragon form couldn’t burn the poison out of them. And of course Nate had to act all stoic, as if my worrying was a bigger problem than him being fuckingpoisoned.
I gritted my teeth. If that weasel shifter hadn’t already been sizzled up by fae magic, I’d have been tracking him down right now. And I wouldn’t have stopped to ask questions either. A nice little dragon snack, that’s what he’d have turnedinto.
West hurried over, carrying a jar of black powder. He scooped some onto a small spoon and offered it to Nate. “It tastes like crap, but it’ll help pull the poison out of yourstomach.”
Nate gulped down the powder and made a face. He started to try to push himself onto his feet, and I caught hisarm.
“No way. Take it easy for once. I need you getting better, not running yourself into theground.”
He eased back down, but hesitantly. “We shouldn’t stay here very long. There were other rogues that got away. They might still be followingus.”
“Or others who want to do us harm,” West murmureddarkly.
“And we just lost a significant portion of our food supply,” Marco put in. He’d stretched out on his back, his muscled chest rising and falling with halting breaths. “Well, I guess this trek just got a lot moreexciting.”
Chapter 7
Ren
The open airtingled over my wings. I swooped across the mountainside, reveling in the glide of my dragon’s body. After so long cooped up in the caves, the sense of freedom made me giddy. Part of me longed to flap those wings as hard as I could and soar all the way around the towering peaks, but I reined my impulses in. I wasn’t out here to havefun.
My sharp dragon eyes scanned the rocky terrain again. Aaron had been right to doubt the hunting possibilities up here. I hadn’t spotted anything living at this level of themountain.
He was following me now in eagle form, conducting his own search while keeping me in view. Just in case I lost control of my shift. I didn’t exactlylikehaving a babysitter, but it was kind of comforting all the same. I hadn’t gotten a lot of warning the last two times I’d run out of energy and had to shiftback.
I swerved around to glide lower down the slope, to where a few sparse trees and shrubs managed to cling on to the rock. The deepening evening dark hid my immense, scaled form from anyone who might have glanced up from the town below. All I could see of Sunridge was a faintly speckled glow amid the shadowed landscape between themountains.
While Marco and Nate had been recovering, West, who seemed to have the sharpest nose out of all of us, had gone through the rest of our food stores. Along with the biscuits, we’d had to chuck a bunch of beef jerky and a bag of apples. My precious Doritos were safe, but they weren’t going to get us veryfar.
So while hunting wasn’t proving very fruitful, we didn’t have much choice but to try. Once we’d started walking again, slower to accommodate the weakened guys, we’d been lucky to find a gap in the ceiling wide enough for my dragon shape to fit through. It’d been a tightsqueeze.
My attention jerked back to the present. A shadow had moved amid the sparse brush. A large hare, hopping tentatively from one shrub to the next. Not much of a meal for five, but I’d take what I could get at thispoint.
I swooped down, extending my forelegs. The hare froze at the sound of my descent. At the last second, it decided running might be a better strategy. Too late. My taloned foot snatched it up, one claw severing its neck to stop it fromsquirming.
Killing it had been easier than I’d expected. Some natural instinct had taken over. I remembered what West had said the other night after he’d killed a deer.We’re all predators here.At the time I’d thought he was just talking about the alphas. But he could have meant metoo.
I didn’t ever want to beusedto killingthings.
My muscles were starting to twitch with the need to let go of this form. I’d held it for a while now, longer than the last two times, but I didn’t want to push my luck. I shot up the mountainside toward the crevice I’d emerged through. Aaron circled around after me, a smaller rabbit in his owngrasp.
The prickling dug deeper into my muscles. My dragon’s jaw clenched. I had to hold on. If I transformed back into human form out here on the mountain slope, totally naked... If we were too far from the cave, even Aaron wouldn’t be able to get me back in time before I froze to death. And then there would be no dragon shifters left atall.
I pushed my wings through the air. It no longer felt so exhilarating. I spotted my salvation up ahead. A thin stream of smoke trickled up into the cold evening air. I plunged towardit.
The rough rock edge scraped over my scales as I dove through. I transformed as I fell, hitting the ground on knees already partly human. The impact jarred mybones.
But I still had the hare, its thick fur soft between my clutchingfingers.
Nate hustled over with my clothes. The bear shifter was still moving more sluggishly than usual, but he’d regained a healthier color as the day had gone on. The charcoal West had given him and Marco seemed to have helped a lot. I hated to think what might have happened if they’d eaten more of the biscuits. Or if we allhad.
