Page 16 of Protector Dragon's Shattered Mate

He was dying to ask her question after question, but he didn’t want to make her feel like he was interrogating her.

“You can ask me anything you want,” she said.

“How did you know I wanted to ask you questions?”

She scooted closer, and his heart thumped in his chest. “I can just tell.”

“I do have questions, but my overwhelming concern is that you’re safe. You seemed like you were in quite a bit of distress when you arrived. I want to make sure that you’re okay.”

“There’s no easy answer to that.” She looked down at her hands. “My inclination is not to tell you anything. Not to give it away too much information in case you use it against me.”

He opened his mouth, but she held up her hand. “You don’t have to defend yourself. I don’t think you’re going to hurt me. Based on past experience, I have reason to believe that’s what will happen. But my instincts actually tell me to trust you.”

Fury welled up in his gut. He’d suspected that someone had hurt her, that she had a dark past. But hearing it confirmed was a whole other story. “Who was it? Where are they now?”

“They’re in Siberia. Most recently, it was a pack of wolf shifters.”

Wolf shifters had harmed his mate. “What do you mean, most recently? Was there more than one?”

“Oh. Well. My own clan wasn’t great, but they weren’t the reason I was running.”

“But the wolves were? What did they do? Can you tell me where they were located?” He pulled out his phone to write down the location. He wasn’t going to let this go. He was neverquick to use Kellan’s vast resources to do frivolous things like take vacations, but for this, he absolutely would. And Levi was not without money himself. If necessary, he would track down these vile pieces of shit.

She scrambled up from her spot on the ground, crouching next to him. “Wait a minute. You can’t go after them. They’re evil. They’ll try to kill you.”

“You don’t have to worry about us. I don’t have as much experience as some of the shifters on this very ranch. But a few months ago, I flew to South America to fight dragon shifters who had gotten involved in some dark magic as well as some witches and wizards that had become corrupted as well.”

And he wasn’t going to say anything to her, but he was afraid thatthisgroup of wolves was the same group that had held Nora hostage years ago.

Levi had learned about it on his trip to Peru to help with the mafia group of dragon shifters. All of them had attempted to catch Levi up on the relevant parts of their clan history. According to Niall, Nora had said the same thing to him—she hadn’t wanted him to pursue the wolves. She’d thought they’d start a turf war. Niall had always regretted letting it go. Levi would not make the same mistake. He also would have to tell Nora. She deserved to know if these were the same ones.

“Really?”

“Yes, really. And Kellan, Quinn, Liam, and Brennan have all fought a vast array of supernatural people. They’ve fought vampires, aliens, Fae, witches and wizards, demi-gods and demons.”

“Aliens? Aliens are real? And demi-gods?” When he nodded, she exhaled. “I don’t even know what to say to all that. I’m not sure I knew some of those beings existed.”

“They do. So, when I say that we can take care of this, it’s not bluster. Nora, the witch that I called for advice about yoursituation, just helped with a spell to unlock a two-hundred-year-old curse.”

He put his hand on her arm. “We won’t go off without a plan. We’ll even gather some intel first. But if there’s a pack of wolf shifters hurting other shifters, we have to act. Otherwise, there will be more victims.”

She looked down at her lap. “You’re right. I know that.”

“Hey.” He put his hand on her cheek. “I won’t let them get near you, okay?”

She sighed. “Thank you.”

“We can get back to them in a minute. Tell me about you first. What happened to you? And what can I do to help?”

“I had left my clan. I was wandering, and everything was okay. I thought that I could live in Siberia. I thought that I would do well there because I could shift back and forth. But I didn’t work out like that. I was hungry all the time and did not consider the fact that real bears actually hibernate. I tried to hibernate, but I could only stay asleep for a few days at a time. So, I was in my human form out in the middle of the woods, and I was actually cold for once. It was well below freezing and I hadn’t eaten in days. I wasn’t thinking clearly. A male wolf came up to me and he offered me money. Then he offered me a place to live. Like an idiot I went with him. He took me to a remote compound in rural Siberia.” She huffed a laugh. “I suppose everything is rural in Siberia.”

“Do you think you could point any of this out on a map?”

“Probably.”

“Sorry to interrupt you, please keep going.” He put his hand on top of hers and held on.

“Once we got there everyone was very kind. That lasted for several days. I noticed that there was razor wire around the fence, but I dismissed it. Eventually after I had slept and eaten, I asked why there was razor wire, but I was told not to askquestions. And they started having me recite spells. That’s when I knew there was a problem.”

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