Page 47 of Ash

“Yes, I was. And you tossed the entire meadow on top of me.”

“You were attacking my pack at the time.”

“They were helping Rindek escape.”

Tyrez held up his hands. “Okay, enough. We were on opposite sides of that battle, and it wasn’t pretty. But that was then. This is now.” The glare he fastened on Razir caused the other man to grimace and look away. “Do you have an issue with staying with Dani? I need to know you’ll be there for her if anything happens.”

Razir’s jaw jutted a little, but he nodded. “Fine. I promise to protect her with my life, okay? But who is going to protect me?”

Dani pulled her lips into what looked like a smile, but any Dire would know the truth. “The big bad Dragon needs protection from little old me?”

Razir suddenly looked murderous and Tyrez shot her a look, dark brows lowering. “Not helping, Dani.”

She flung her hands in the air. “Okay. I promise not to throw the kitchen at him. Can’t promise not to snark. Not in the cards.”

One brow twitched upward as Tyrez glanced back to Razir. “Good enough for you?”

His purple eyes blazed at her, and then away. “We agree not to kill each other. Swell. I suggest you be quick with Jacques.”

“It’s Jacques. Nothing is quick with him.” Tyrez gestured to the fridge in the kitchen. “I restocked the fried chicken if either of you is hungry. And I think there might be beer, if Razir hasn’t drunk it all.”

“How do you guys stay so buff on a diet of fried chicken and beer?” Dani’s eyes dropped to Tyrez’s abs, so clearly defined beneath the scales, and then skittered away. Frigging hell, were they ripped.

Those lips, the most obvious inheritance from his father, twitched. “It’s genetics,” he said, striding toward the ledge. “Try to behave, you two. I have a Satyr to intimidate.”

“Thought that was why I wasn’t going,” muttered Razir.

“Intimidate, not terrify.” Tyrez’s wings burst free from his back, and he leaped off the ledge.

* * *

When Tyrez flung himself off, Dani ran to the edge, heart in her mouth. Only to see the distinctive turquoise Dragon soaring off into the clouds.

“He likes to do that,” Razir admitted from beside her. “No one is faster than him at shifting.”

Dani hadn’t even seen the Dragon move, but now he hovered close, as though he was afraid she’d fall off the edge. Fall, or...

She glared at him. “I’m not going to jump.”

His brows lowered again. “Good. Because I might not catch you. I can’t shift as fast as Tyrez.”

The words dripped with sarcasm

“Look. I said I was sorry.”

“No, you didn’t. You said you did what you had to. Not the same thing. People died because of you.”

Dani’s stomach twisted into a knot, but her anger flared. “People fight for all kinds of reasons. Some good, some bad. But you know nothing about mine. So back the hell off.”

His gaze bored into hers, and then his eyes slid sideways. To her shoulder.

The spacious robe had shifted while she argued with them, and she’d been too distracted to notice that it now revealed the juncture of her neck where it joined her shoulder. The skin there revealed healed marks—two large round ones showing to the front. They matched two along the back.

Remy had bitten her deep, so deep that not just his canines had penetrated her skin. Between the large punctures were a curved row of smaller ones.

She hated the scars. They were a reminder of what had been done to her. Of Remy’s brutality. And Rindek’s betrayal.

Dani snugged the robe around her neck and caught a flash of recognition and, just maybe, something close to sympathy in Razir’s gaze. She glared at him. She didn’t want, or need, his compassion.

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