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I backed up a couple steps to make sure I didn’t trample him as I shifted. With a nonchalance that was becoming easier every time I had to do this, I pulled off my shirt and kicked off my pants. I’d already ruined enough clothes with impromptu shifts over the last few weeks. The warm evening air washed over my bare skin. I leaned forward and let myself fall into theshift.
Reaching down and bringing forth the dragon side of me was coming easier every time too. I didn’t have to struggle at all now. The scales and talons were waiting just on the other side of my skin, itching to break free. I opened myself up to them, and, with an exhilarating tingling, my dragon shape expanded through mybody.
Literally. My neck extended, my eyes sharpening, my teeth rising into points. My limbs steadied beneath my lengthening torso. A barbed tail lashed out behind me, and vast wings sprouted from my back. I stretched them over me, taking a little of the edge off the urge to soar up into the sky. I wasn’t needed up there right now. My business was right here on theground.
Flames tickled the base of my throat. A deeper heat filled my dragon lungs. I dragged in a breath, sensing the difference between the two flames I could cast down. The scorching destructive burn of my usual dragon fire—and the bright, crisp blaze that could cut through to the truth. As much as part of me wanted to unleash the first for what the dog shifter had done here, it was the second I drew into mymouth.
With a hot gush, I let those violet flames pour down over therogue.
A yelp broke from his throat. He thrashed at his chains, an incoherent mumbling spilling past hislips.
For a second I thought my power hadn’t worked. That somehow this mangy shifter had enough will to resist where even the queen of the fae hadn’t. Then his mouth burst wide open to answer my earlierrequest.
“We knew the dragon shifter was coming here with all of the alphas,” the rogue gasped out. “The kin-groups are starting to rally. We had to show that even with the alphas united, we rogues have more power. We can destroy you if we want. The alphas no longer get to call all the shots. They have to bend toourwill.”
Yeah, we’d see about that. As my flames streamed on down, Nate stepped forward, his arms crossed over his brawny chest. “Are there more of your group nearby? Are they planning anotherattack?”
“There’s a large bunch of us gathering in the south. I don’t know exactly where. I wasn’t told, so that I couldn’t tell you. And we’ll keep attacking until the alphas and the dragon shifters no longer control shifterkind.”
“What exactly do you think is going to be so great aboutthatsituation?” Marco putin.
A whine crept into the dog shifter’s voice. “I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it much. But I don’t like that we all have to kowtow to your rules, and everyone who doesn’t is kept on the outside. If there were no alphas, we’d all be the same, making our ownrules.”
Somehow I didn’t think it’d happen exactly like that. Whoever was in charge of the rogue group, they must be awfullypersuasive.
An uncomfortable prickling was starting to fill my lungs. I couldn’t sustain these flames for much longer. I scraped my talons against the ground in what I hoped the alphas would realize was awarning.
“How many of you are there still?” Aaron askedquickly.
“Maybe twenty that I’ve met. Dozens of rogues throughout the country. We recruit more of them every day.” The dog shifter clutched his head, shaking it but unable to staysilent.
“What do you have planned as your next moves?” Westsaid.
“I don’t know. We don’t know our instructions until right before weact.”
My chest was outright aching now. I aimed one final blast of violet fire at the rogue, and Nate got in one lastquestion.
“How did you get past the guards to break into theestate?”
The rogue chuckled. Actuallychuckled, as if the question was funny. “Oh,” he said. “We didn’t have any trouble there. We had someone happy to help us. A raccoon shifter named Keith—one of the guards. He let us right in, your precious kindid.”
Chapter 4
Ren
The truth-seeking flamesdrained me faster than any of my other shifter powers. I tried to hold on a few seconds longer, to give my alphas a chance to push the rogue for more answers, but my body crumpled. The fire snapped out. I collapsed in on myself, into my humanform.
Aaron was at my side in an instant, handing me my clothes. His jaw was tight. As I reached for my shirt, Nate lunged past us. He shifted into his grizzly form, charging up to therogue.
The dog shifter recoiled instinctively. But when Nate opened his jaws threateningly, he sagged into the hold of hischains.
“Go right ahead,” he said, managing to sound both disdainful and resigned. “Chew my throat out. I don’t care. What else are you going to do to meanyway?”
A good question. I glanced at the other alphas as I dressed. Marco’s eyebrows were raised, his mouth slanted at a crooked angle. Frustration smoldered in West’seyes.
Nate let out a huff of breath and snapped at the rogue’s neck. But he didn’t let his teeth even graze the skin. He swung his massive form around, shifting back into ahuman.
“Take him away,” he said to the guard with a jab of his hand. “I don’t want him in my sight unless we need himagain.”
