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And I was going to kill him.

I whistled once. It was a long, low note that carried on the wind like an owl’s cry, summoning my enforcers out of the woods and to the clearing. They’d ensure this was a fair challenge, between Sean and me, without his hired muscle getting in the way.

Sean bared his teeth. His power crackled through the air like lightning. He shifted, but it didn’t look smooth or relaxed like it did for my brothers in the clan. It looked painful, like his dragon was forcefully ripping out of his skin. His bones cracked as they snapped and reformed into the longer, stronger skeleton of hisdragon. His scales ripped out of his skin and cascaded down his back. His spine lengthened, neck to tail, and long, scarred wings pushed out of his back like a moth from a cocoon.

Though we were twins, our dragons had never looked identical. My dragon was sage green, dotted with gold. Sean’s had always been the ash gray of a thundercloud. When we were teenagers, the gray would catch the sunlight and shine like gunmetal. Now, his scales were dull and flaking. His eyes were gold, swirled with red, and his wings hung heavy like they were weighing him down.

I glanced to the side. Hawk stood at the edge of the clearing, one hand on the hilt of the knife on his belt, pain marring his face. Seeing Sean’s dragon in such a sickly state wasn’t easy for him, but it was proof of how far gone Sean really was. He met my gaze and nodded once.

It was time to end this.

My dragon surged forth. I shifted in the space of a breath. My dragon was so close to the surface, chomping at the bit to be freed, it was less of a shift and more of a release. I stretched my wings and whipped my tail, then flapped my wings once, hard enough to send the hired muscle behind Sean stumbling back a step. In my dragon form, I smelled the feral edge to his dragon. It smelled sick, like he was rotting from the inside out.

Sean roared, loud as a clap of thunder, then charged at me.

I lunged forward. We collided in the center of the clearing, our twin roars booming through the air. I dug my shoulder into Sean’s chest and heaved forward, trying to slam him backwards, but Sean’s claws only dug deeper into the dirt. His chest heaved, and he swung his head wildly, snapping his jaws as we fought for dominance.

He was strong. Stronger than I had expected, based on the poor condition of his scales. But it was a rapid, uncontrolled strength. The challenge’s magic had activated somethinginstinctive deep inside me—had it done the same for Sean? Had it awakened some ancient, hungry part of him? I was willing to do anything to defend my clan, and now he was willing to do anything to take it from me. Drool frothed around his fangs as he growled and hissed.

Rage and hate fueled him. He’d never stop coming for me, my clan, my mate, my son.

My claws tingled, and my teeth throbbed. I was ready to tear out his throat.

52

HARLEY

Chaos exploded around me.

Steph’s sage green dragon crashed into Sean’s smaller, sickly looking gray dragon. For all his sickly appearance, though, he was surprisingly strong as he struggled against Steph. Sean’s hired lackeys withdrew knives and batons and charged forward as well, brandishing their weapons at the Lakeview enforcers. They began to grapple as well, and the sounds of dragons’ roars, men’s shouts, and the thump of fists meeting flesh filled the night air.

Blakely tightened her grip on my arm and took an unsteady step back. We were right at the edge of the clearing, with the tree line at our back. Hopefully, we wouldn’t be collateral damage, but with those dragon tails whipping, anything was possible.

My arms were starting to go numb. I’d been tied up for what felt like hours. First, I’d been slapped in handcuffs and put in the back of a shitty van, then driven down a winding dirt road to another one of Sean’s dirty hiding spots. He’d left me there with a few of his hired enforcers, who had tied me to a chair and promptly ignored me while they got drunk and played cards. Nothing had happened until Sean returned. When he had Stephon the phone, I could hear Steph’s rage even through the tinny speaker.

I wasn’t scared. I was pissed.

At Sean, of course, but mostly at myself.

How could I be so fucking stupid? I’d already been kidnappedonce, and I’d let it happen again? Steph had gone to so much trouble to ensure thisdidn’thappen. I couldn’t believe I’d been gullible enough to think my mother had changed.

Mom. I hoped she was okay, wherever she was.

Steph roared, and smoke billowed from his nostrils as he swung his head and bashed it into Sean’s. Sean snarled in pain, and the distraction was enough for Steph to push forward and take control. He dug his claws into Sean’s body, and the two dragons rolled on the ground, nearly taking out some of the men fighting around them as they crashed into the cabin.

“Shit!” Blakely dragged me back until we were between a few of the trees, as if they would defend us from the fighting. “Shit. Shit. This was a mistake,” she muttered under her breath.

“No fucking shit. This mess is your fault, and I’m going to wring your fucking neck when it’s all over.” I tugged against her hold, but it was no use. With my arms half-numb and her grip tight with fear, I wasn’t getting away. Plus, where the hell would I go? I wasn’t going to run when Steph was in the middle of his challenge.

“Shut up,” Blakely hissed. “This isyourfault more than mine. If you had just left town?—”

I barked an incredulous laugh. “After everything that’s happened, you’re still stuck on that? You actually think you’ll get your fairy tale ending with Ace?”

“There’s nothing funny about this.” Blakely yanked on my wrists, and my shoulders twinged in complaint.

I grimaced at the pain. “You’re completely sick in the head. You need help, Blakely. Steph never loved you. He never reallywanted you. You were justthere.And whatever you had with him is over.” I nodded toward the ongoing fights. “This goes way beyond whatever weird obsession you have with me and Steph. You were really stupid to get involved with Sean. Really, really stupid.”

“It worked, though.” Blakely’s voice quivered. I could tell she didn’t really believe what she was saying. She was arguing just to argue. “Ace showed up, didn’t he?”