Page 24 of The Reluctant Mate (Shifters of the Three Rivers #5)

Chapter twenty-four

Sofia

M y claws flexed into the frozen dirt under my paws, my body crouching low as I stalked forward.

His smirk turned razor sharp as he adjusted his grip on his gun. “Go on, then,” he invited. “Give it your best shot. I’ll beat the shit out of you, and then you’ll still be leaving with us.”

I erupted into motion, anger crackling through me, eyes locked on his neck—on the pulse just under the skin.

His smirk flickered. Briefly. Almost imperceptibly. He waited until I was close, then he moved—faster than I’d expected. He twisted sharply, pivoting on the balls of his feet, and the stock of his gun slammed into my shoulder with bone-cracking force.

Pain flared. I buckled for a second. He could have hit me again, but he didn’t. He just chuckled as he stepped back and circled me.

“Not very good at this, are you?” Slinging the gun over one shoulder, he withdrew a blade from a sheath on his hip.

I knew shit about guns but blades… blades I knew. It was a Ka-Bar tactical knife with a seven-inch serrated blade and black coating designed to prevent reflection. This wasn’t some hunting knife—this was a weapon specifically designed for close-quarters combat. The kind of blade that could pierce werewolf hide and do serious damage.

Alrighty, then.

I darted in, feigned for his throat, but as he swung the knife, I dropped low and left.

My teeth dug into his calf—a quick, precise bite meant to rip enough muscle to slow him down. He staggered back, swearing as blood seeped through his pant leg.

“You’re just pissing me off, you know that?” he spat, his balance already recovering, though there was a new tightness to his voice. “That won’t end well for you.”

I growled low and deep, our eyes locking. I’d hurt him. I could do it again.

He dropped into a defensive stance now, no longer relaxed or bored. Blood still leaked from the tear in his calf, painting dark drops against the frosted ground, but his grip on his knife remained firm.

I was running out of time. The others would be here any second. I had to end this.

I lowered myself back into a crouch, growling softly. As if bracing for another blind, wild charge. His hand twitched expectantly, and he shifted his weight to counter. I went right first. His knife angled up to block the attack.

Got you.

I dove left, ripping into his other leg.

I heard the sound of crunching snow and knew backup was coming. I could feel it, sense it, smell it: humans approaching fast from multiple directions.

Seconds. That’s all I had.

Before I could decide whether to kill him or flee, the air shifted. A faint gust of wind rustled through the trees, colder, heavier, laden with a scent I recognized.

The man froze. His eyes darted upward, past me, a flicker of fear flashing there.

“What the—?”

The sound of trees groaning under massive weight forced my head to whip around. I barely had time to register the black shape swooping down before it reached us. I’d seen this only once before, and it sent shockwaves of fear lacing through me then as well.

Lucian.

Not the man—not the grumpy Bottley owner with the perfect hair and casually terrifying stares I’d spent months trying to impress. No. This was something entirely different.

This was a dragon Shifter.

Lucian was enormous, his wingspan blotting out the sky as he dove straight for us. Scales, obsidian black creating an iridescent effect, rippled in the low light like liquid shadow. His landing shook the ground, a gust of scorching air rolling off him as he folded massive wings close to his body. The air shimmered with heat, snow beneath his talons already melting into steaming rivulets. His claws—black as midnight and long as daggers—sank effortlessly into the earth, carving deep grooves. Amber eyes, still that same striking color as in his human form, glowed like molten gold against the darkness of his scales.

The man rolled sideways just as Lucian’s tail came sweeping down, smashing against the ground with enough force to crack the earth. He scrambled to his knees, reaching for something—another weapon, a communicator, something—but Lucian didn’t give him the chance. His head shot forward with terrifying speed, teeth bared, twisted ninety degrees, and clamped onto the man’s torso.

He screamed. The sound cut short as Lucian jerked upward, dragging the man into the air with ease, teeth slicing through him like butter. A sickening crunch, then silence swallowed the woods again, broken only by the thud of body parts hitting the ground. Lucian had dropped what was left of the body with the grace of a hunter discarding prey that wasn’t worth a meal.

My legs trembled slightly—not in fear, exactly. But the raw magnitude of him, the sheer primal power, left me simultaneously reassured and unnerved.

He swung his head around, his eyes fixed on me before he exhaled loudly. I watched, fascinated, as the long exhale started his Shift back to human form. It was sudden and seamless. One moment, massive claws and tail; the next, Lucian standing over the shredded remains of the man as though he hadn’t just incinerated the concept of physical limits. Fully dressed, naturally. Because, of course, dragon Shifters got to retain their perfectly put-together civilian facade while we wolves had to navigate the logistics of Shifting back completely naked.

He studied the corpse. “You got two hits in, both on his calves. You need to hit the vital points, bleed them out quick.” He raised an eyebrow at me. “They were good hits, though, so I suppose there is that.”

I huffed out a sharp breath, absolutely livid. I’d got myself free after being tied up, escaped from a cabin and covered more than ten miles in the freaking snow, then fought a guy with a gun and knife. And Lucian had the freaking nerve to critique where I bit the guy.

Lucian’s gaze shifted behind me, where the sounds of the others were close.

“We need to move,” he said bluntly, stepping around the body and gesturing for me to follow. “Car’s a mile west of here.”

I glanced back, saw Derek’s shirt half-buried in the snow where I’d dropped it, and scooped it up without hesitation. I bit into the fabric, holding it firmly in my jaws as I loped after Lucian, silent but intent on the one thought driving itself deep into my mind like a bullet. Derek better still be alive.

Because when I found him, I was going to make him regret leaving me.