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He tipped my face toward his and kissed me softly. When he moved away my body was humming. I could feel his presence through our bond even after he’d left and shut the door behind him. While he was on the estate and that close to me, I didn’t think I’d need anyone’s help to findhim.
I lay back down on the sunning stone and just drifted in and out of memories for a while. Weirdly, letting those fragments of my past rise up didn’t increase the pain of my loss. If anything, they soothed it. It was a heck of a lot better remembering the happy times. Why should my only clear recollections of my family be my fathers’ and sisters’ last moments of panic andtorment?
When I sat up again, my nerves felt more settled. I touched the edge of my phone in my pocket. I did have another kind of family that I wasn’t going to leave behind completely. I’d promised Kylie I’d keep checking in. The last thing I wanted was her figuring I’d ditchedher.
Hey, Ky,I texted to her.Exciting times here. We’re going to take the battle to the rogues. I came up with a brilliant plan... Well, we’ll see how brilliant it is when we tryit.
Her response came a minute later.Oh please. If you came up with it, of course it’ll work. I can just imagine your dragon self smashing all thoseassholes.
There was something pretty satisfying about that image.I wish you were here to really see it. I guess we’ll be near New York again before too long. We’re heading to Marco’s estate next, in Florida, and then West’s is up in the Northeastsomewhere.
Oooh, Florida sun and fun! Where’s hispad?
I smiled.Apparently not far fromMiami.
That figures. He totally looks like the clubbing type. Make sure you keep him in line, youhear?
Before I could answer, someone knocked on the door. “Come in,” Isaid.
An attendant peeked inside. “Dragon shifter,” he said. “Nate requests your presence by the holdingrooms.”
Shit. It was already time to see just how brilliant my plan was. I sucked in a breath. Add another one to the many conversations with my bestie I was going to have to put offfinishing.
“All right,” I said. “I’mcoming.”
Chapter 11
Ren
It felt strange,being the only one of the shifters around me still in human form. I set my feet down as quietly as I could, moving with the others up the wooded hillside we’d chosen for our ambush. A loamy smell filled my nose. Furred bodies wove through the trees aroundme.
My mates and Nate’s kin who’d joined us had all shifted as soon as we’d left behind the vehicles, stashed off the road. It made sense, since in their animal bodies they could move faster and more stealthily, extend their senses farther, and just generally be more badass. Nate and Marco padded along on either side of me, West loping along ahead of us. Aaron soared overhead alongside Alice, watching for worrisome activitybelow.
I could have been a hell of a lot more badass as a dragon, but the one thing I wouldn’t be was stealthy. Not to mention it wouldn’t do us much good if I burned out my limited shifting energy tramping through the woods and then had to do the actual fighting as ahuman.
Orion should have reached the rogues’ camp last night. The plan was for him to tell them that we’d be passing along this stretch of road this morning—that we’d planned to slip away during the wee hours to avoid notice. They’d think they were coming right down to the road to ambush us there. But they’d run right intoourambush before they had a chance to see they’d beenmisled.
At least, that was how it was supposed to go. Assuming Orion came through and didn’t just throw in his lot with the rogues. He’d seemed determined to follow my plan when I’d talked to him before he left, but also a little browbeaten. Maybe once he’d gotten farther away from my and his alpha’s authority, he’d decided to take his chances with people who hadn’t locked him up and drugged him. Even if they weremurderers.
I really hoped I’d been right about him,though.
West slowed at the top of the hill. He walked to the crest where the ground slanted down again and glanced back at us. This was where we’d planned tostop.
Aaron dove from the sky, leaving his sister on sentry duty. He shifted as he reached the ground and made a graceful landing on both humanfeet.
“There’s movement a few miles off,” he said. “I’d guess they’ll be here in half an hour or so. We should spread out downwind so they don’t catch our scent before we’re ready tospring.”
I nodded. The other animals drifted back into the trees. I followed, staying by Nate’s side. I was going to have to hang farther back than the others, because my smell wouldn’t blend into the natural landscape aswell.
There might be a few downsides to being the rarest type of shifter around. But I did mean to use my unique skills to my bestadvantage.
When Nate stopped, with a dip of his head toward me, I ran my fingers into his thick grizzly fur and pressed my face to his shoulder. He nuzzled meback.
Back on the estate, while we’d been making our final plans, Nate had tried to convince me I should sit the battle out. He’d made it through about half a sentence before I’d laughed and given him my best dragon stare. There’d been no arguments afterthat.
The kin who’d died had been my kin too. And I wasn’t going to stand by while the rogues who’d destroyed their lives and my family’s were still walkingfree.
I turned and reached for the tree we’d stopped beside. The best thing about being a dragon was flying. And I’d be damned if I was going to spend any time at all on the ground as soon as I couldshift.
