The heat in my belly was overwhelming, and when the druid flung his arm out at me, ready to cut me with that knife, I opened my mouth and roared. Fire coated my throat, ripping out of me in one long stream, covering the druid. I didn't let up. I pushed all of me at the druid, knowing that when I stopped to take a breath, I would have no more fight left in me. I wasn't trained, I didn't even know how a dragon could fight. I was uncomfortable in this body; it was wonky and unstable, like all of those T-rex jokes on the internet-I had no idea how to use my arms. Once I felt like I would pass out from the heat and being out of breath, I stopped the fire. The druid was covered in black soot, sweat rolling down his face, but he was unharmed, as if his skin had a protective coating. Shit. Nadine's words about the other hunters we encountered being tied to a weak druid came back to me. She had said we'd gotten lucky. Now I knew why.
The druid raised his knife to come at me again when a streak of black flashed behind him. Logan tore across the lawn and into the room, his head smashing into the ceiling, ripping into the top floor. The commotion caused the druid to turn around, but it was too late. Logan's open jaws came right down upon the druid's head. I flinched as Logan's jaws clamped shut, and nearly gagged at the sound they made when piercing the druid's flesh. In one swift move, Logan yanked upward, pulling the druid's head clean off.
The shock of seeing such a gruesome death had me stumbling backwards, away from the scene. My dragon was panting, trying to regain some of the strength I had lost when I'd breathed all that fire, and I was trying not to throw up at the sight of so much blood. Suddenly, over the druid's dead body, a green concentrated mist began to rise up. I looked up and locked eyes with Logan, instinctively knowing this was dragon magic. This druid had stolen dragon magic long ago and it was now rising up upon his death, as if it knew it didn't belong with the evil man. Logan stepped forward into the green mist, breathing it into his nostrils and lungs, his eyes momentarily glowing green. The entire time, they were locked on me.
My body felt frozen as I took the time to examine his dragon fully. His belly had a silver pearl color that faded up to the inky black at his chest. His wings were tough and leathery, and outstretched must have spanned forty feet, but it was his eyes that had me pinned to the spot. Those emerald green eyes were captivating; they glowed in a magical way that had me unable to look anywhere else. There was an unfurling in my chest as I stared into those eyes, and my dragon stepped closer to him. She was vibrating my chest as if trying to tell me something.
"We've got two injured!" Keegan's gruff voice called from behind Logan, and it snapped me out of my stupor. I looked at the place where Nadine had fallen and saw she was sitting up in her human form, but she looked pale; an angry purplish green bruise dotted her collarbone down to her elbow. Logan turned to Keegan suddenly and lowered his dragon head. Keegan reached in his pocket and pulled out what looked like … tweezers.
What the … ?
I could see a bald patch of skin behind Logan's dragon ear, or horn, or whatever it was. The scales there were gone, and a smooth pearl skin lay underneath. Keegan, on his tip-toes, reached up to the balding patch and with the tweezers yanked a black scale out. Logan didn't even flinch. Then Keegan took another. Placing the two scales in his palm, Keegan turned to me.
"Sloane, do you mind if I take a scale?" Keegan asked me. "They can heal the pack and we can also sell them to the sorcerers for money."
Whoa. Dragon scales healed. I let that sink in for a moment. Logan looked like he wanted to protest, even giving a little chuff of disagreement, but I nodded my consent before Logan could intervene. If my scales could help, then I wanted to. I was just glad no one had died today.
I lowered my head and without warning a lightning bolt of pain ignited behind my ear. I screeched and shuffled backward, slamming into the wall. Keegan stood there with one of my red scales between his tweezers. His lips were turned down into a frown. "Sorry. First time probably hurts a lot."
A lot? That was the understatement of the century. That didn't feel like plucking my eyebrows. No, that was like he had just pulled out my entire fingernail. How often did Logan do that? I realized there was so much about this life I didn't know.
Keegan nodded to me. "Shift back. We need to go into town."
Logan made a chuffing sound that was the equivalent of a dragon growl. I don't think he liked Keegan giving me orders. It was funny that these guys thought I could just shift back and forth at my own will. I had no control over this. Didn't they understand that? Now I was a dragon and couldn't talk to anyone.
Logan had shifted and I was awarded a spilt-second view of him full-frontal before one of the pack tossed him some sweatpants.
I just stood there chanting to myself. Change back, change back, be human.
Nothing happened. This was freaking embarrassing.
I could also see now that Gear was injured as well. He was conscious but moaning in the corner.
Keegan was assessing Nadine's injury when he looked back and saw that I was still a dragon. "Sloane, change back, we need to move out!" he said in annoyance.
Logan had taken two steps closer to me. "She can't," he declared, and I lowered my head in shame.
Here we were, injured and just barely escaped with our lives, and I was standing here as a dragon beacon. Probably leading more of them right to us.
Keegan looked annoyed. "Logan, you need to train her or something. We won't survive like this. She needs to control it."
Logan spun on his friend. "I know that! Don't you think I know that! I take responsibility for all of your lives. What would you have me do? Leave her to fend for herself?"
Keegan's face fell as he looked upon Logan in his irate state. "No. But six shifters aren't enough to guard two dragons. We're going to need a bigger pack."
Logan sighed. "Fine."
Logan spun around to face me. "Sloane, it's safe now. Your dragon protects you from danger. She does what's best for you, but it's safe now."
His words were soothing, their tone and the way his Adam's apple bobbed when he spoke. He reached out a hand to touch my dragon's chest and I nearly stopped breathing. It felt intimate, something that only someone I trusted very much should do. I suddenly felt vulnerable. But the second his palm touched my chest, a purr emanated from my throat. Green light infused his touch and my eyelids lowered. I felt like a hundred-pound weight had lifted off of my shoulders. I felt safe.
The sound of cracking bones and the dull throb that they brought with it jerked me from my trance. It was getting less and less painful to shift. How did my bones heal but my wounds didn't? I had more questions than I had answers.
Once Logan was satisfied I was shifting, he gave me his back. So did Keegan and the other males. Sophie approached me with a handful of clothes, and once I was fully shifted, she threw them at my face. Hard. Anger flooded my body as I caught the clothes a little too late, after getting whipped in the face with the metal part of the jeans.
"Bitch," I muttered, while I slipped on the panties and short black top that exposed my belly. These were hardly clothes that would keep me warm in the snow. Finally I pulled on the jeans.
Sophie spun. "Excuse me! You nearly got us all killed!" Her fists were balled, her face brimming with rage.
I knew how these girls worked. I moved schools nine times before I graduated high school, and Sophie was the kind of girl who pushed your buttons to see if they could be pushed. A bully. You needed to shut it down right away or you would become their punching bag. And I wasn't a pushover. I was a smart girl with a sharp tongue, but I couldn't fight for shit. Not against her. So, I needed to hold my ground now or forever be Sophie's victim.
"So you throw clothes in my face?" I shouted back. "Grow up. And how do you know those hunters came because of me? I didn't shift!"
I thought Keegan or Logan would interfere, but they didn't. This must be how disputes were solved in the pack. Great.
Sophie stepped closer to me and I saw her coyote face barely below the surface.
"Because I've been with Logan for a few years now and we've only had a handful of hunter run-ins. One every year or so, and NEVER at the house. It's you," she spat. "I can smell the dragon all over you."