“Where’s your alpha?”
He managed a sickly grin. “No doubt he’s talking to Udo right about now.”
Dammit.Mervok’s rookie lecture spun through her brain—assess others not based on what you would do, but whattheywould do.Dires were driven by a single entity—the pack. And she’d gotten distracted by this fleabag when she needed to keep track of the alpha.
She flexed her arm and tossed the Dire hard against the opposite wall, where he slumped, dazed. Then she tore her cloak over her head and embraced her beast.
Wings burst from the skin of her back, unfolding first as long, thin bones, but expanding rapidly as her body also altered, growing in size and strength. Her arms and legs rippled with new muscle, her neck arching beneath a row of spikes.
The change was swift and sure. As the last scales chased over her body, she launched for the sky.
Three strokes of her powerful wings and she climbed over the city, searching the busy streets. Her keen Dragon eyes scanned for, and found, Udo standing in another alleyway with his two bodyguards. They were surrounded by five Dires, all in human form, but glaring menace from their golden eyes. The huge specimen speaking with Udo had an arrogant set to his shoulders.
The alpha. Aria folded her wings, and dove.
At the last second, the Dires sensed her coming and leaped away. Aria slammed down in a cloud of flying dirt, her amber eyes flashing fire—
“Stop!” Udo’s high-pitched voice echoed through the alley.
Aria paused, wings held aloft.
“They are proposing a business deal,” Xolto explained.
Aria noted that despite his words, the overseer appeared relieved at her arrival. Trogs might be a match for a pack of Dires in human form, but not if they shifted to beast.
The pack watched her warily from where they pressed against the walls. Their alpha, however, hadn’t even flinched.
“I’m waiting,” he said to Udo.
His tone surprised Aria. He might be alpha of his pack, but Udo possessed power in this place. She took a step closer, looming over them.
The alpha ignored her, keeping his gaze on the underlord. “Do we have a deal?”
Udo tilted his head. “The merchandise is valuable. I’m only interested if your boss doubles the offer.”
His golden eyes narrowed, but the big Dire nodded, and handed Udo a wrapped package. “We will pick it up tomorrow, midnight.”
Udo was a master at hiding his reactions, but Aria caught the ripple of shock that passed across his whiskered face. “I will be waiting,” he replied.
The Dire spun on his heel and left the alley, his pack falling in around him. The two that had been trailing waited for them in the crowd.
Aria watched them go, feeling uneasy.
“Theys makings a buy?” Her Dragon jaws slurred the s’s.
Udo nodded and rubbed his small hands together. “Yes. I will make a significant profit on this deal.” He glanced at her. “We don’t need your Dragon, my dear.”
As Aria took herself back to human, she bristled at the term of endearment. Udo might be fuzzy, but there was nothing warm about him.
Unfortunately, she’d left the cloak in the other alley. She shed the large scales of her Dragon, but grew tiny ones into a red and gold scaled bodysuit that covered her from throat to feet. A handy skill, although the scales did not drape like cloth. Instead, they hugged every inch of her shapely body.
Xolto looked away, but the other guard’s mouth hung open.
Aria glared at him. “A blind Trog will end up begging on the street. And if you don’t quit ogling, I’ll feed your balls to the scavengers.”
His mouth closed—then opened. “Seriously?”
She bared her teeth until he looked away. “You’ll find that when it comes to ogling,” she growled, “I lack any sense of humor.”
