Page 77 of So I Dared a Dragon

“Into what? I’m human!”

“You’re not human.” Bibi pulled off her wig. She was ready to show some wolf. “And these wolves aren’t pack unless they prove otherwise. Calista, you might have to do some things you never thought you’d have to. I know you were never called upon to fight, but it doesn’t mean you were born without the instinct.”

“Whoa. Hardcore,” Darcy said softly.

I wouldn’t let these wolves intimidate me, but Bibi was right—I had been sheltered, a move that felt more and more intentional with each new scale. My dragon traits had me feeling pretty ballsy, but I still wasn’t familiar with, much less skilled in, this new body.

Bibi got out of the minivan, and I followed.

“Stay here,” I instructed Darcy. It didn’t feel right, more like I was keeping her in a cage. But she was too valuable to both sides to become a liability.

Bibi had already shifted. She bared her fangs and stalked forward.

But one of the wolves—I was pretty sure it was Declan—it had been a long time since I’d seen him as wolf—had his yellow gaze fixed on me.

“Why don’t you help your bestie, Calista?”he asked.“Shift like the good little she-wolf you are.”

I let rip with a massive gust of fire, singeing his fur and making the rest of his goon wolves jump back.

But the fire only froze everything for too brief a moment, then it fueled the rage, the hatred, all the things that should’ve been said years ago that now couldn’t come out as anything but pure, feral anger.

Bibi grabbed a wolf by the scruff of his neck and flung him across the highway. His body bounced off the Zzyzx Road exit sign. She was taking them down two at a time.

Declan was still all about me.

I pushed up my sleeves, revealing my scales. I braced my arm like a shield. “How long did you know about this?”

Darcy screamed before he had a chance to answer. Chancing a glance to see what was wrong was a risk, leaving me vulnerable to the alpha wolf challenging me. She struggled to get her fully formed wings out of the minivan. Her shirt fell to the pavement in tatters. She covered her bare breasts with one arm, while the other pointed to the sky.

Aarix had come for us.

twenty-eight

. . .

Aarix

I had the strangest sense of déjà vu as I flew over the desert. I’d been here before. Maybe not in this exact location, but this scene…this wasn’t the first time I’d witnessed it.

More than that, lived it.

It was the wolves that tipped me off. How tiny they looked as they scattered, running for their lives. I’d seen this play out in a battle for the Rocky Mountain dragons.

They’d used wolves as their guardians…

“Sweet moon, that’s Bibi,” Hugo growled as he curled his fingers into my scales.

He’d tipped us off that the situation had escalated, confirming the chaotic vibration I’d been picking up from my mate. He’d used an elaborate tracking system to pinpoint the ladies’ exact location. He’d been very proud of it, and it was correct, but I didn’t need it.

“Looks like she has things under control,” I said. Bibi had a reputation as a fierce fighter, but this was the first time I’d seen her in action. They were coming at her, two, three at a time, and she was breaking them. Still, they had the audacity to try. Even as they watched their comrades fall.

That was brotherhood. That was why my thunder had followed me into that mountain. Why the Rocky Mountain thunder had trusted me. All for one, and one for all.

“She’s magnificent, isn’t she?” Hugo sighed. “She hates fighting, and I understand why. She’s a force to be reckoned with, and I’m not sure we’re ready for her full power.”

Magnus glanced over at me. When we got the call from Hugo, he warned me that he thought this was a false alarm. A trap. That Hugo was in on whatever Bibi wanted from us. That we’d been lured here under false pretense.

But my gut told me different. And no matter what Bibi wanted, Calista belonged to me.

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