Page 31 of Protector Dragon's Shattered Mate

“I know it’s hard. It’s cliche, but my upbringing is always with me. It doesn’t do us any good to pretend it doesn’t matter.” She pulled her arm away and faced him, meeting his eyes. “And remember. These wolves have already used her as a tool. Imagine how that would feel.”

“Pretty fucking bad,” he said.

“So, are you ready to enactPlan, Get her Back?” Kellan asked. “Just say the word.”

Levi nodded. A few hours earlier, he’d gone to Kellan to ask for help keeping Sofia on the ranch. At the time he’d felt bad for going behind her back to speak to Kellan, but they’d all agreed with him she was a huge flight risk.

He’d been right. But it gave him no pleasure to say so.

Just then Quinn came charging up the stairs. “The wolves are here.”

“Here?” Levi asked.

Quinn nodded. “Yes,” he said with urgency. “Here. In Cedar Lake. Most of them are in human form right now and they’re vandalizing the playground. They’re ripping the swings off the chains, and they’ve broken the slide off the fort.”

Several gasps sounded in the hallway, but Levi didn’t care about the goddamned playground. He could not focus on the criminal acts of the wolves. At this point, he could only focus on Sofia, and on getting her back.

“That’s the playground where I met my mate.” Kellan’s face clouded over. “We’ll make sure that it’s repaired,” Kellan told the group.

“Yes. As soon as we kick their asses,” Brennan yelled.

“Okay!” Kellan clapped his hands together. “Everyone to the living room,” he yelled.

Everyone rushed down the stairs. For anyone who hadn’t already arrived in the living area, Kellan pressed the button, andan alarm went off in the entire house, and the surrounding land as well.

Because of the threat, no one was sleeping outside, but there were shifters standing guard on the porch. The alarm didn’t sound like a harsh fire alarm. It was an annoying buzz, similar to the kind most people used to wake up in the morning. Once everyone was in the house, they all congregated in the living room, with some spillover into the kitchen. There were no stragglers.

Levi never wanted to take this group for granted. His own clan back in Canada might grudgingly accept his mate if she were not a dragon, but he wasn’t sure if they would go into battle for her. But in this group, no one grumbled, no one complained, no one said, ‘why does she get such special treatment?’ Levi was just amazed at how much solidarity there was in this group, and he was so incredibly proud to be a part of this clan.

Kellan stood on the hearth of the fireplace and gave everyone a quick update about the wolves’ arrival, and about Sofia having fled.

The mood of the room dipped noticeably when Kellan admitted that she’d run away. There were hushed whispers, but no one seemed angry, just worried.

Then Brennan took Kellan’s place and went over the basics of the plan. The previous day, everyone who’d be fighting had been assigned a group—one group would stay and defend the ranch, one group would go after the wolves, and one group would stay with Sofia.

“As we’ve noted, within each group, some of us will stay human, some of us will shift. You’ve already been assigned weapons. These enchanted blades should work on the wolves just as they worked on the demons. This will be a little bit different from the demon mission because we’re not going into a single house. The wolf sighting was on the playground, and thatwas where a third of us are heading. A third will stay here and defend this property—it is our home base. And the other third will go after Sofia.”

Everyone watched Brennan with a determined look on his or her face.

Liam was staying with a group at the house, Quinn and Brennan were going after Sofia with Levi, and Kellan was going after the wolves at the playground.

As the groups dispersed ready to fulfill their roles, Levi noticed Quinn, Kellan, Brennan, and Liam all moved together. They clasped hands, hugged quickly, and said a few whispered words. Then each of them exchanged a quick, meaningful look, before they pulled away.

Once the four brothers had exchanged their quiet goodbyes, Liam and Brennan’s mates ran over and gave them both a huge hug. Of the four brothers’ mates, they were the only two who weren’t human. Brynne, Liam’s mate, was a dragon shifter, and Fallon, Brennan’s mate, was a Fae. Liam lifted Brynne into his arms and buried his face in her neck, and Brennan grabbed Fallon and kissed her on the mouth.

Levi wanted to thank them again, but he didn’t want to be a distraction, and honestly, he didn’t want to hold up the process. He was itching to get on the road and go after Sofia.

Led by Brennan, the group moved toward the front driveway, half of them still in human form, and half of them already shifted.

“Levi, can you track her? Can you follow her scent?” Brennan asked.

“Yes. It’s very clear, and it will be easy for me to follow it.” He tilted his head. “She hasn’t tried to cover it. Unless she used magic to trick us. Is that possible?” Levi asked.

Nora was circling them, staring at the ground. “No, there’s not a lot of magic here. She didn’t try to trick us.”

“I bet she was trying to draw them away. She would’ve wanted them as far away from Kellan’s house as possible,” Levi said. She had been fixated on not endangering the rest of them. But there was no time to waste. “This way,” he said, pointing west. “The scent is very clear.”

Quinn’s phone buzzed. He kept walking while he checked the message. He exhaled. “One of them has just set fire to the library.”

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