Page 30

I ’m teetering on the edge of the precipice between losing my self-control and keeping my skin.

This isn’t a good thing.

If I let that happen? If I allow myself to shatter? Then the Dragon will take over and the world will be lost.

That’s not a boast.

It’s a fact.

The monster inside me? Let’s just say he’s the stuff the legends all talk about.

Every Dragon has power.

A special elemental sort of magic that he weaves with his very breath.

Mine? Well, let’s just say there is a reason wild beasts heed my commands.

Even now, the wildlife around me can sense my mood.

The birds take to the skies and everything from the largest deer to the tiniest chipmunk scurries away.

All of them fearing what the Dragon will do in his anger, in his need for vengeance.

But outweighing that need is something even more imminent. Saving her.

Bringing her back.

Knowing my Casey is in danger?

Not good.

Not fucking good at all.

And it isn’t a sound that alerted me.

Not a sight either.

Just a knowing.

The moment it happens, I feel it.

The matebond flares white-hot across my chest like someone set a goddamn brand to it.

Casey.

My Dragon rears in my mind, roaring so loud I almost swerve off the road.

“Easy,” Max says from his seat next to me.

I’m not sure how he made it so quickly across the ranch, but he was already in my truck when I got there, eyes glowing red with his Devil.

“She’s in trouble.”

“Where is she?” Max barks, sharp and immediate.

“School.”

The word scrapes out of my throat like gravel.

My voice isn’t human at all anymore.

It’s rough and fraying at the edges, distorted by the barely leashed fury of my Dragon.

I’m trying not to shift right here behind the wheel. Every muscle trembles with restraint.

My vision keeps flickering purple-gold at the edges.

We tear down the road, the sky darkening by the second.

Ominous clouds roll in above us like an invading army.

Thunder grumbles, low and threatening. A warning.

And then lightning explodes in a blinding flash that splits the horizon as we come over the hill and see the school.

It’s chaos.

The lot is jammed with police cruisers, sirens flashing, red and blue bouncing off every wet surface.

Parents are screaming. Some are crying, clutching their kids like life rafts in a storm. Others are pounding on the locked front doors, demanding answers.

Children file out, their faces pale, tear streaked. Teachers herd them into tight groups.

“What happened?” Max demands, leaping out as I roll to a stop near a cluster of adults.

“A maniac!” a woman gasps, mascara running down her cheeks. “He came out of the trees and grabbed one of the kids. Then he took the nurse! Dragged her off the field! The whole school’s in lockdown now.”

“He had a gun,” another parent says. “That poor nurse! He just grabbed her and ran! They’re saying it was targeted!”

“I see. Good luck to you,” Max says calmly, the Alpha power in his voice calming the group for a heartbeat.

I don’t speak.

I can’t.

Because the moment I hear nurse , I know.

He has her.

Michael fucking D’Angelo has my mate.

I shove the truck back in gear and drive around the back of the school, where the forest meets the playing field.

It’s quieter here.

No flashing lights.

Just the hush before the storm turns violent.

But I don’t give a fuck about rain and thunder. The real storm is already inside me.

And it just took a turn for the worse.

“He’s got her, Max,” I growl, slamming the heel of my hand against the steering wheel.

My claws rip through the leather.

“The fucker’s driving away with her.”

Lightning crashes above us again, closer this time. The air pressure shifts. A crack of thunder follows hard on its heels, loud enough to shake the windows.

“We’re going to get her back,” Max says, planting a hand on my shoulder. “Now concentrate. Where is he taking her, Zeke? Use the bond.”

I grit my teeth, closing my eyes for half a second and reaching for the tether inside me.

Our matebond.

It thrums like a live wire, pulling eastward. My chest burns where the Dragon’s Rose mark is etched into my skin.

“East,” I say hoarsely. “He’s heading east.”

Max nods. “Then he’s on Route 80. Trying to get out of state before the alert hits the highways.”

Another clap of thunder.

I look up.

The clouds split like wounded flesh overhead. Rain pours down in sheets, cold and stinging. Wind lashes through the trees, tearing leaves loose in a frenzy.

Like nature itself is mirroring the chaos in my chest.

My Dragon’s done waiting.

I throw open the door, the storm instantly soaking me to the bone, and I turn toward Max.

“I can’t wait for traffic. He’s moving too fast.”

Max meets my gaze and nods once as another truck pulls up behind us with the rest of the Crew.

“Do what you have to do. We’ll follow,” he says.

I nod right before I change. My beast rips out of me faster than I can blink.

I cloak my form before the full shift takes hold.

It’s an enchantment older than time itself, woven into my bloodline and passed down from the first fire-breathing beasts to ever grace the sky.

Dragons are different.

Older. Wilder. Made of storm and stone and the raw bones of the earth.

We don’t just shift.

We become.

In a burst of searing light and curling smoke, my body surges upward and outward, bones stretching, skin splitting open in a blaze of golden fire as I give in to the ancient magic that lives beneath my skin.

My roar echoes like a god’s war cry through the thunder-laced sky.

Then I stand— on all fours now —massive and mythic.

My Dragon body hums with power, every scale gleaming like forged metal in hues of deep eggplant and lavender, iridescent in the storm light.

Jagged golden spines erupt from my spine, glowing faintly like molten ore. My claws are long and curved, made for rending flesh and slicing through steel.

Wings stretch high above me, spanning thirty feet easy, the membranes glittering with arcane runes that shift and shimmer with living magic—protection, power, purpose.

They were branded into my kind at the dawn of existence.

They cannot be seen unless you are meant to see them.

And right now? The sky sees everything.

The storm bends around me. The wind sings my name.

Lightning flares and the earth itself responds, as if every animal and blade of grass is momentarily aware of the ancient being taking flight above it.

Because Dragons aren’t just predators.

We are nature’s last defense.

The sentinels of balance.

The keepers of forgotten oaths.

And right now, I’m compelled to honor the strongest vow my kind can ever make.

To protect my mate.

There is a reason that every age of humankind, every civilization that’s walked this earth, has feared Dragons.

See, when we move, the whole world feels it.

The forest beneath me grows silent.

Birds stop mid-flight.

Deer freeze in the trees.

Even the insects hush.

Not out of fear. But reverence.

Humans might have forgotten their magic, but there are some parts of them that still know.

It’s why the cacophony of noise coming from the school seems to have stilled.

But I’m not thinking about them. I’m only thinking about her.

I flap my wings once, the motion booming like a thunderclap, and rise into the darkening sky. The rain cannot touch me.

My magic burns it away before it lands.

Cloaked in arcane shimmer, invisible to human eyes, I soar past the clouds and chase the pull of the bond between me and my mate.

The Dragon’s Rose on my chest glows, and I feel her fear like a blade under my scales.

Casey is in danger.

And I am coming.

The ancient earth magic pulses in my blood, guiding me, anchoring me to her.

There’s no force on this plane— or any other —that can stop me now.

She’s mine.

My wings work hard, scattering the rain, scales gleaming like wet stone, power coursing through me with every breath.

I roar.

And then I launch myself higher into the storm-filled sky, chasing the bond, chasing my heart.

Casey’s out there. And I’m going to bring her home.

The skies part for me like they know better.

Wind howls in my ears as I circle the tree line at the back of the elementary school. Tracing the memory of her movements in the shadows left behind.

My vision sharpens, and then I see it.

The path they took. Where he was parked. The road he drove her down.

I push myself faster, moving over the highway.

I don’t have to know what kind of car he’s driving to find them. But when I do find it, I send an image through my bonds to my Alpha and hope he is keen enough to see it.

There are too many other drivers for me to safely land and extract her, so I bide my time and I follow.

I follow her.

Anger consumes me at the idea of her being hauled like a goddamn sack of potatoes in the back of this piece of shit’s car.

My roar shakes the sky.

My supernaturally enhanced vision catches the fucker—Michael D’Angelo—as he glances up through the windshield.

It’s just once. But it’s long enough for me to see his face.

The face of the motherfucker who dared lay a hand on what’s mine.

The Dragon demands vengeance.

Fire. Blood. Destruction.

But not here. Not yet.

I follow them as he takes another exit, cursing the bastard as he drives for another hour before pulling into an abandoned lot.

It’s some old industrial park.

I can feel Max and the others closing in. It’s just a matter of time before they’re here.

But I’m done waiting.