CHAPTER 23
~ Raine ~
Ifoughtagainsttheinstinct to arc around and burn the monsters howling on the balcony. The monsters who dared to think they could hurt me and my mates. Fire burned in my belly, and I was about to change direction when Asher began stroking me appreciatively, his hands brushing along the scales of my neck.
“Damn, they’re so smooth,” my demon murmured like he was completely oblivious to the threat that was behind us. I wasn’t sure if he had intentionally tried to distract me, but it was enough that I blinked, my focus going back to Locke who flew ahead of me.
Huffing out smoke, I banished the outliers from my mind as I followed my vampire high into the clouds before we came down again, careening toward the ground quickly until we were below the forest canopy and landing on the ground.
Kade, Asher, and Darian jumped from my back, but I stayed in my dragon form, not ready to shift back into my human form just yet. If Warrick somehow regained consciousness, I wanted to be ready to take him down.
“We’ll walk from here,” Locke said from beside me. “That way we hopefully won’t accidentally lead anyone to the location of the hideout.”
At that, we started forward, making our way through the trees.
“Well, I’d say that went rather well,” Darian commented as he smoothed his hair, tying it back into a neat ponytail.
Kade grunted like he was still in wolf mode, and Asher grinned. “I gotta say, I doubted we could pull it off, but I’m feelin’ rather good about this.”
I opened my mouth, momentarily forgetting that I couldn’t speak while in dragon form, and instead of words, a stream of fire shot out, igniting a nearby tree.Oh, fuck.Growling, I scurried forward as the tree toppled, already turning to ash, and I patted the ground with my massive paws, carefully putting out the fire before I burned down half the forest. When the flames were out, I turned around to find all four of my mates staring at me.
Rolling my eyes, I forced the shift, shrinking to my human form until I was standing butt-naked in the pile of ash. “What?”
A stupid smile crawled across Asher’s face as he blatantly admired me. “What’d I say? Raine being a shifter is better than the time Darian got with the succubus who had a fetish for feet.”
“How dare you,” Darian retorted. “That succubus planned our encounter before I’d even arrived at the party.”
“And you were defenseless to stop her,” Asher countered with a grin.
Darian shrugged. “You would have done the same had she chosen you to be the object of her desire for the night. Besides, I do have rather supple feet.”
I stared at the pair of them, not really sure why they were talking aboutfeetin that way. Stepping from the ash, I decided to take a position between Kade and Locke, and we walked further into the forest, leaving Asher and Darian to follow behind. My demon and siren could explain that one later. Or you know, not.
We were still a short distance from the rundown cottage that marked the location of Lyr’s rebel camp when Kade stopped abruptly and placed an arm around me protectively. “I hear shouting,” he growled in warning.
Locke cursed, gripping Warrick tighter in his arms. “What is it?”
Kade sniffed the air. “I’m not sure. Something feline.”
Asher and Darian grabbed out their weapons as we continued forward, and Kade shifted, padding alongside me. Locke hung back with Warrick in his arms, but I don’t think he was happy about it.
When the familiar cottage came into view, the trees opened up to a clearing and I finally managed to get a good look at what was causing the commotion.
Lyr, her mates, and a couple of wolf shifters from the House of Worzel had circled a beast with a lion’s head, long horns, and a tail ending in a snake’s head.Vasken?The chimera roared, his jaws opening wide before he snapped them shut and lunged for Lyr. Dean’s hand shot up, vines springing from the ground and winding around the creature’s front paws before it could reach her. The monster snarled, tearing through the green restraints before swiping at Lyr again. She dropped and rolled back, avoiding his claws.
I frowned in confusion, surprised that Lyr wasn’t shifting, but then I took notice of what she was saying. She lifted her hands, facing her palms toward Vasken. “We’re going to give King Adrien to the fae, Vas. He got us into this mess, and we can use him to try and forge a peace treaty once again.”
Vasken’s creature roared in response like hearing her explanation only infuriated him more.
“You sure he can understand you?” One of the wolf shifters asked skeptically as Vasken lunged toward him and he only just managed to dodge out of the way, missing the chimera’s claws.
“Yes,” Lyr hissed. “He understands.”
“Or at least, we think so,” Dean added, wrapping more vines around Vasken’s hind legs.
Vasken set his sights on Dean, but then he stopped to sniff the air. In the next moment, he tore through the vines and was bounding in our direction.
Lyr’s eyes widened when she caught sight of us. “Vas, no!” she shouted as the chimera sprinted across the clearing.
