Page 177 of Her Tortured Beasts

Savage scrambles up Aurelia’s leg and onto her back with great familiarity. Xander approaches the two younger enemy dragons from the east and Aurelia hones in from the west, catching them in the middle. Both dragons open their mouths with the full force of their great chests, and let out a pure storm of dragon fire. Where Xander’s fire is a vicious red, Aurelia’s is a deep, almost ultraviolet that stings the retinas.

I don’t look away as my own eyes burn, but no doubt the pain of it is what makes the green and red dragon shriek in pain as they lose their vision and direction in the sky. The mint green one veers towards the ground, while the red tumbles as far away from my regina as he can.

It’s then that Flores Drakos charges for Aurelia, his jaws aimed for her neck.

I scream my regina’s name, but just before impact, a black mass intercepts. Xander takes the full force of the bigger dragon’s charge and Flores’ jaws close around his son’s neck instead.

Scythe goes flying from Xander’s back.

I catch my shark-brother with my own power and lower him to the ground. Aurelia rages at the sight of the two dragons, diving after them as Flores uses his larger weight against Xander. When they hit the turf of Drakos Estate, Xander is crushed beneath the force of his father’s sheer size, the sound of breaking bones reverberating in my ears. Something else also reverberates through the air. Something made of wild, celestialpower. Something that makes my mating mark burn like living lava.

Aurelia lands heavily, teetering to one side as her new leg struggles to take the brunt of her landing. She rights herself quickly and Savage, in his wolf form, appears on top of Aurelia’s head and leaps right for Flores Drakos, who’s snarling over his son’s supine body.

Savage lands on Flores’ neck, scrambling to get purchase on the hard scales and uses his teeth instead, sinking them between the heavy emerald plates.

Flores tilts his head up and screeches, stumbling backwards as Savage, as if the bastard was born to do it, buries his entire muzzle into Flores’ neck at an angle, digging into muscle, and making blood spurt like a fire hydrant. The massive dragon bucks like a bull and Savage loses his grip, sending him spinning through the air in a wide arc.

I catch him with my telekinesis and lasso him towards where I’m standing with the Devi pack out of the way of the dragons.

Xander groans, his power healing him, but not quick enough to get him back up. Aurelia tosses her head angrily and considers the bigger dragon?—

Until Lady Drakos charges in on foot and screams into the minds of everyone in the vicinity,“You will never hurt my children again!”She slams right into Flores and they thrash upon the grass, kicking up a violent dirt storm.

“Mother, no!” A voice I don’t recognise screams from the castle entrance and a slender, pale woman in a grey dress sprints down the steps towards the fighting dragons. She shifts as she does, deep yellow scales tearing through her skin and clothes. There’s a loud crunch of cartilage and her dragon form appears stilted until she stretches out her wings and forelegs. There’s a sound of cartilage popping and groaning like her body is waking up after a long time.

“Who is this?” Minnie cries, her hands digging into her hair.

The yellow dragon charges for the fray, but Ragnar intercepts her, landing with his claws extended and brutally kicking her backwards.

Aurelia roars in anger as the yellow dragon shrieks and thuds onto her back.

“That’s Selena!”Aurelia cries into our minds.“Xander’s sister!”

But it’s Savage who’s already sprinting, nothing but a black bullet as he leaps and lands with a thump on Ragnar’s tail, his teeth deep into the hard flesh right at the tip. Ragnar turns in alarm and thumps his tail, but Savage doesn’t let go as he’s shaken like a rag doll.

I’ve had enough of watching my regina and brothers fight together while I watch on. I let my power slingshot me towards Aurelia just as she launches herself at Ragnar, teeth bared in rage.

But Ragnar is an older, more practised dragon, and sees the attack coming a mile away. Just as he kicks with his foreleg, I whack him with my power, sending him stumbling backward?—

Allowing Selena to leap on top of him, her fangs violently tearing at the flesh of his neck. Blood spurts from the side of my eye and I turn to look as our black wolf, who has crawled up Ragnar’s supine body, has ripped into his underside, right between his hind legs.

Savage pulls out something long and fleshy, tossing it into the air. He shifts into human form, his face covered in blood as he catches what’s left of the protuberance. “Found it!” He cheers, holding it up like the trophy.

Ragnar lies dead on the grass, Selena still ravaging his neck, focused like she’s trying to decapitate it.

Aurelia turns away to look for Xander and Lady Drakos. We spot them close to the estate wall. Lady Drakos thrashes madlyunder Flores’ much larger body while Xander launches himself at his father, teeth and claws outstretched.

My regina cries out as Flores twists just in time, rolling Lady Drakos on top of him as a shield. Many sets of telekinesis lash out, shoving Xander to the side before he crushes his mother. Xander’s eyes widen as he barrel rolls through the air in an arc, realising he’s being saved by our combined powers. He rotates, landing back on his feet.

The ground trembles under the force of him.

Scythe appears from behind the dragons, sprinting towards Aurelia. I collect him with my power and yank him towards safety. He scrambles up Aurelia’s back with the familiarity of long years of practice.

Lady Drakos is injured, bleeding freely from her wounded hind leg, and now we can see multiple other wounds have joined the first. She’s groaning in pain, all the while fighting her captor, who’s sunk his teeth into her shoulder from behind.

Selena’s daffodil-yellow form thunders past us, making Aurelia stumble back on the crosswind. Together, Selena and Xander take one of their father’s legs in each bloody maw and force him to roll over.

But Flores won’t let go of his wife, his eyes wide and wild as blood spills from his mouth where he’s sunk even deeper into her shoulder. Xander roars, tearing at the flesh of his father’s side, ripping a chunk of black scales right off his body.

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