Page 248 of Secret Shifters Next Door

He pointed at Jared. “You. I want you,” Miles hissed, and my blood went cold at the soulless anger in his voice.

Mariana had leaped from the car and was running toward us. “God damn it, Jared! You’re not supposed to hurt her. What the hell is wrong with you?”

Jared never took his eyes off Miles. “Sorry, sis, my temper got the best of me.” He nodded at Miles. “We can get this all over with quickly if you brought what you were supposed to.”

The sound of shoes on gravel broke the standoff. Jared’s eyes flicked past Miles’s shoulder toward Tate, who was walking toward us. As big as Miles, Steff, and Blayne were, Tate was still imposing compared to the others. If he’d been standing there looking at me the way he was looking at Jared, I’d have probably cried and pissed my pants at the same time. All Jared did was raise an eyebrow and clench his hands into fists.

Tate went deathly still, and he sniffed, then tilted his head. He looked at Jared with a combination of surprise and understanding. “Miles,” Tate said. “I know why we couldn’t figure out what this guy was. His beast is being suppressed somehow. Something is preventing him from shifting.” Tatetook a step toward Jared. “Are you one of Antonio’s experiments?”

Jared stiffened, his neck blazing red.

Mariana looked back and forth between Tate, Miles, and her supposed brother. “Jared? What the fuck is he talking about?”

“I can smell it on you, though,” Tate said. “The dragon.”

“Shut up,” Jared screamed. “You shut the fuck up.”

“Why would you side with hunters?” Tate asked. “They only want to see you, and us, and our kind dead. Dragon clans are dwindling like crazy. Christ, I may be the last alpha in North America, and here you are, one of my clan, fighting to eradicate us. It’s like a Jew trying to help the Nazis. There aren’t many of us left. If Antonio has his way, we’ll all be gone soon.”

Jared stared at the ground. I pushed onto my knees. I couldn’t take my eyes off him. It was like he was fighting something—a deep rage or pain. His face twitched, and his lips were moving like he was having a silent argument with himself. Mariana stood to the side, staring at Jared in disgusted horror.

“Let us help you,” Tate said, “You don’t have to do this alone. You don’t need the hunters. You need a pack. We can help. We can end what Antonio is doing with shifters. The torture? The experiments? All of it.”

I had no idea what Tate was talking about. They must have discovered something new. Something that sounded even worse than hunting shifters. If what Tate was talking about was true, then the hunters were even more evil than I’d thought.

“Jared?” Mariana asked. “Are you one of them?’ The words dripped with disgust and derision.

Jared looked up. “Mariana, they’re only trying to distract us. Let me handle this.” He looked at Miles and held a hand out to him. “Give me the file, asshole. Give me that, and you get your bitch back.”

Miles snarled at him, and Tate stepped forward and glared. Waves of energy came off him, and I deduced it had to have something to do with him being an alpha because even I wanted to submit to him. Jared’s head bowed slightly, almost like he was being crushed by the weight of Tate’s will. He was trying to fight it, but he didn’t seem to be successful.

“You need an alpha to keep your dragon in check, to prevent you from going feral. If you had an alpha, you wouldn’t need to suppress your beast. You could live free.”

Jared was shaking, almost jittering like a leaf in the wind. His lips peeled back in a sneer, and I could see the moment he lost control. Anger overtook him, and the beast he’d been so good at hiding finally tore free. Claws burst out of his hands where his fingers had been.

“Don’t do this!” Tate shouted. “It’s not worth it…just calm down.”

Nothing Tate said made a difference. In fact, it only seemed to make Jared angrier. Tate was still trying to reason with him when Mariana stepped closer, staring in shock at the taloned scaled hands that used to belong to her brother.

“Jared?” Mariana’s voice shook as she spoke.

“Please,” Tate said. “Turn your back on your father. Join us.”

The last attempt didn’t go well. Jared screamed at Tate—a guttural nonsensical shriek of rage, shame, anger, and hate. I leaped to my feet and ran to Miles as Jared shifted into a dragon. His human scream morphed into a reptilian roar. I didn’t turn back to look. I kept my eyes on Miles as I ran to him. The look on his face was one of terror.

Even over the sound of Jared roaring, I could hear Miles saying, “Oh shit.”

THIRTY

MILES

I shifted and sprinted out to get between the dragon and Celina. Dragons were the most dangerous of all shifters. They were bigger, stronger, and could breathe fucking fire. Knowing that, I had no clue how dangerous a dragon would be after being suppressed. God only knew how long this Jared guy had been keeping his dragon stuffed away deep inside. The beast might be completely uncontrollable.

“Get the women out of here,” Tate shouted, waving his hand toward Celina and Mariana.

I growled, not wanting to leave my friend to face the danger alone, but Celina needed to get out of here. I couldn’t have given two shits about what happened to Mariana, but I did as asked. I shifted back and grabbed Celina by the hand, and ran back toward the cars. As I ran past Mariana, I scooped her up around the waist with my other hand. She cursed and struggled but allowed me to haul her and Celina behind my truck.

I set them down in the gravel and turned to look at Tate. He was still standing and looking at Jared, who was already fully shifted. The dragon was gnashing its teeth and dragging its claws across the ground, digging deep furrows in the dirt. It looked enraged. My body tingled with adrenaline, and I let outa relieved sigh when Tate finally shifted. He was at least twice the size of Jared’s dragon, and had much more control. Living symbiotically with our beasts was the best way to develop your full potential. It was obvious Jared and his dragon weren’t on the same page.

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