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West shrugged stiffly. “There was a lot of talk, at the time. Mostly because my father didn’t agree with that choice. He saw what happened, but he was too far away to help my mother himself. He hasn’t spoken to me since thatbattle.”
I stared at him. When West was fifteen—his father had held that decision over him, a decision that had saved so many lives, for twelveyears? “You were practically still akid.”
“I was alpha,” West said, his gaze coming back to me as if daring me to blame himtoo.
But I didn’t. I wouldn’t have blamed him if he had saved his mom in that moment, but he’d made a sacrifice instead. One life to save several more, to protect a village, to turn the tide of the battle. I couldn’t imagine it. If it’d beenmymom—
The realization hit me then, like a smack in the face. It took me a few seconds to even form thewords.
“You must have hated my mother,” I said. “For what she did. For leaving all of you, for all that time. Just to protect me.” By his standards, she’d been so terriblyweak.
I didn’t expect to see West’s expression soften. “Ren…” he said. “I did. For a long time. But I don’t know what it’s like, being in those shoes. Having all the additional responsibilities that come with being dragon shifter. Maybe running and saving you was the best thing she could have done for us. It certainly could have gone a hell of a lotworse.”
We could all have died, and the dragon shifter line could have died out completely. Was he saying he was sure now that his kin were better off with me than each kin-group fending forthemselves?
“Anyway,” West went on, “As a fellow alpha, Nate might as well be my kin too. If I’d gotten in there a little faster last night, before that vampire pulled the trigger…” He exhaled raggedly. “I carrythatresponsibility. All of us alphas need to stay strong. United. I’d hate to see what the bloodsuckers do to us if we fallapart.”
And what about after the vampires were dealt with? Did he see us staying unitedthen?
My pulse had sped up, thumping hard in my chest. “West,” I said, “ifyou—”
A wordless shout of alarm rang down the hall. Both of us whirled toward thedoor.
“They’re here!” someone called out. “The vampires are outside thewalls.”
Chapter 8
Ren
“Away from the doors!”West shouted as we dashed through the jostling crowd to the front doors. “If you’ve got an assigned task, join me outside. Everyone else, stay in the house. You’re safest behind these walls. That’s anorder!”
I could taste the fear in the air, like an acrid chill. Uneasy murmurs traveled all around us. My heart thudded. Evacuating all these kin to this estate meant fewer walls to defend, but it also meant a whole lot more depended on us holding these particular walls. We couldn’t let even one vampire breakthrough.
I burst past the door with a bunch of West’s guards and other kin who were joining the battle. Sandra, the wolf shifter he’d sent scouting this afternoon, fell into step beside us. Her face was flushed, her breath short. “I headed back as soon as I saw the trucks. I can’t have gotten more than a few minutes lead on them. They’ll be hereany—”
The growl of engines sounded on the other side of the walls. And here they were. West swung his arm. “To your assigned positions. Everyone, ready. We’ll take them down just like wediscussed.”
I knew my role in all of this. I wanted to say something to West, to show how much I appreciated him opening up to me, but our enemies were right outside. I couldn’t waste asecond.
And after the story he’d just told me, I knew he wouldn’t want me toanyway.
I yanked off my dress as I hurried down the front steps and launched myself into the air. My wings snapped from my frame, expanding as the rest of my body did too. No relaxed shift this time. My muscles screamed and my nerves twanged. But I was up in the sky, scaled and soaring, before the first vampires had evenemerged.
Truck doors slammed. Feet crunched into the brush. Guns clicked, ready to fire. Was the king himself outthere?
After the way he’d ducked out of the battle last night, I doubted it. Here was West leading our defense on the front lines, and the leader of our enemies couldn’t even be bothered to show up to watch the results of hisorders.
I gritted my teeth, my dragon fangs rasping against each other. If I ever saw the vampire king again, I wasn’t giving him the chance to barter for his life. He’d be a crispy cinder before he’d so much asblinked.
The bloodsuckers moved through the forest along the edge of the ring we’d cleared. Their pale forms blended in and out of the shadows. They were spreading out, circling the estate, as we’d expected. And not venturing too close to the cleared area with its heaped line of firewood. I guessed the purpose of that defense was prettyobvious.
But we didn’t want to light it until we needed to. That wood would have to last us the whole night, until the sun drove any remaining vampiresaway.
West’s people spread out too, taking their positions along the walls. Ready to leap over and light the fire if they needed to—or to fend off any vampires who tried to scale those walls. As I swooped over the front yard, Kylie emerged from one of the equipment sheds carrying the flame-thrower she’d had one of her contacts fashion. Felix’s head jerked around in a double-take when she passed him. Oh yeah, he definitely wasn’t underestimating hernow.
But I didn’t want any of my companions to have to leave the protection of these walls. If I could turn all the vamps to cinders before they breached the estate—and before my shift started to falter—there’d be no more kin joining Nate in the healer roomtonight.
Gunfire rattled by the far end of the estate. I swung around to pinpoint the sound, and the vampires near the gate moved forward. Oh no, they weren’t getting away with that. I banked sharply to the left, gathering flames in mythroat.
