Skyborn (Dragons & Druids #1)(31)

The lion was close now; I was a dead woman if I didn’t do something. My dragon knew it too. As the shifter leapt for me, I raised my hands to protect my face and shouted, pushing all of that electric energy out of me. The moment my hands went up, a purple bolt of magic shot out, striking the lion in the face and dropping him like a sack of bricks. At the same time, I heard a gunshot, and Gear burst from the trees taking shots at the wolf that was trying to tear into Nadine.

I looked down at my hands, which still held their fading, purplish glow, and then my eyes fell to the mountain lion at my feet. He looked dead. I stumbled backward and spun around when I saw Logan standing there staring at me with green, slitted eyes.

I still had my hands held out stupidly and they were shaking. “I … umm.”

Logan snapped out of his trance and took two steps past me, kneeling down to feel the lion’s pulse. “He’s alive,” he said in a voice that made me think he wished he were dead.

I spun around and saw that Gear had shot the wolf on top of Nadine and she had crawled out and was shifting to human form.

The wolf was moaning but otherwise looked to be okay.

Once human, Nadine spat in his face. “They tried to attack us to do gods know what. I say we burn them alive.”

Even now, at the end of Gear’s gun, the idiot wolf was eyeing Nadine’s body with lust. Gear growled and the wolf looked from Nadine to Gear and lowered his eyes. Logan was shaking with uncontrolled rage. He stood two steps towards the bleeding wolf and leaned down low, getting one inch from the wolf’s bloody teeth. Holy hell, he could bite Logan’s face off if he wanted to. “These women are mine.” Logan growled and it was barely audible underneath the husky anger there. The wolf stared in Logan’s eyes as if trying to assess his dominance, but after a few seconds he lowered his eyes to Logan’s chin.

“I will honor pack politics this one time. But next time you step foot on our land or so much as sniff our women … you’re dead,” Logan breathed, and the wolf just stared at his chin.

I hadn’t noticed it before, but the lion shifter I had knocked out was in human form now. He must have shifted while Logan was talking to his friend. “What the hell is she?” he said from his crouched position on the ground and pointed to me, staring at me like I had sprouted two heads. It was Blondie.

Gear popped off a shot and it sank into the man’s shoulder, sending him into screaming agony. “Don’t look at her,” Gear growled, and I flinched at the gun’s loud report.

Logan stood, towering over both of them. “This is our territory. Go back to yours and stay there!”

Blondie glared at Logan, but finally stood and started to walk away, back into the forest the way he came, holding the bleeding wound in his shoulder. The injured wolf that Nadine had fought limped after him, bringing a trail of blood with him. They were gone and I let out the breath I had been holding. Gear pulled off his shirt and handed it to Nadine, who tossed it over her naked body as she whispered her thanks.

Gear looked at Logan. “Did you see it?”

Logan nodded.

Gear raised an eyebrow and I noticed that even in all the scuffle his green Mohawk stood tall and uncrumpled. “It was … purple.”

My nerves tightened to knots in my stomach. They were talking about me, about what I did. Whatever it was...

“What does it mean?” Nadine asked, and I continued to stand there stupidly, wondering what was wrong with me.

Logan sighed, scratching the back of his neck. “I don’t know. But I don’t like it.”

Footsteps crunched behind me and I saw Keegan run up with Sophie and Dom. Keegan took in Nadine’s half naked body and the blood on the ground. “Jesus. I barely get into a truce with the alpha next door and you’re trying to kill two of his shifters? What happened?”

Nadine put one hand on her hip. “They were taunting us like they were going to…”

It was an ugly and scary word but it needed to be said.

“Rape us,” I finished, and Keegan’s eyes glowed yellow as a growl tore from his throat. Dom pulled two guns out from inside of his hoodie and held them at his sides. His chiseled face looking murderous.

I don’t think Logan knew what the men’s intentions with us were, because upon hearing me say that, his fists clenched. “I’ll kill them,” Logan said between labored breaths. Sophie’s face fell in compassion; she pulled her coat off and walked to put it around Nadine.

Keegan spoke up from beside me. I didn’t even notice he had moved closer to me. “We need to stay here for a few weeks at least, so Logan can train Sloane. We can’t go on the road with her in this state. Until then, we need to play nice with the neighbors … unless they provoke any of us again.”

Dom sneered. “And if they do?” he asked, and I was finally given an unobstructed view of his face sans hoodie. He was good looking, but the fine scars and hard-set eyes told me he had lived a hard life.

Keegan peeled back his lips, showing all of his teeth. “Then we kill them.”

Logan was pacing the forest, hands clenched. I could sense he was trying to keep his dragon from rushing to the surface.

“You okay, bud?” Keegan crooned in a calm voice as if he was approaching a rabid dog. Maybe he was. Logan looked positively ready to attack.

Logan spoke through gritted teeth. “I thought they were just having a territory dispute, not that they were going to…”