Page 36 of Bound to the Dragon
“We’ll be back.” Madison grins mischievously at me. “Right?”
“Eventually.”
Virginia looks back at the guests. “What am I supposed to tell the pack?”
Her mild panic takes me aback. What does she care?
“Who cares? They won’t miss us when the alcohol starts flowing.” I tug eagerly on my mate’s hand, my desire for her growing by the second, but Virginia stands firmly in her place.
“No, you can’t leave.”
Madison’s face shadows. “Virginia, what is going on?”
“It’s just… You need to stay.”
Alarm replaces my initial lust, and I exchange glances with my mate. “Why?” I growl. “What’s the problem?”
I become aware of several eyes looking in our direction, and every pore in my body is active, my senses on high alert. Something’s going on again.
Fuck!
“Get back!” I hiss at Madison, but it’s too late.
The tables flip, and we’re in the middle of another full-fledged attack. I don’t need to tell Madison to shift. She’s already in her crow form, hovering above the brimming chaos breakingout below, but I barely have time to whip into my dragon form as a lion lunges for me, his teeth bared for my neck.
I spray a ring of fire at him, disintegrating him mid-air and turning him into a pile of ash. My enforcers jump into action, taking on the slew of foreign attacks.
I can’t believe this is happening a second time. But I can’t allow myself to wallow in disbelief. I function on pure primal instinct.
I lock eyes with Madison, hovering above the crowd, but she looks away. I know now that she knows something, especially with Virginia attacking us.
Had she known her friend was involved? Could Vigo have been right about Madison all along?
I don’t have time to consider the sinking in my gut now as I join the defense again, cursing the fact that I didn’t listen to both my Beta and my mate when they advised against this second ceremony, although for different reasons.
I cast aside my mounting distrust toward my mate and focus only on the flying fur around me. I fend off blow after another with defensive blasts of fire and lashes of my tail, but this time, the attack is more orchestrated. I’m getting exhausted as the assaults come from all angles.
I look for my Beta, but in the flurry of movements, it’s too confusing, too messy, and I can’t connect with my pack to make any real sense of what’s happening. There’s too much bloodshed.
The battle feels like it goes on for hours, but in the end, the attacks subside, and I’m left standing in a row with my enforcers with a sick sense of déjà vu as I survey the ballroom.
Half the guests cower under the tables, most in their animal forms. The smell of death and panic swells in the air. My pack will never trust me after this, and I have no one but myself to blame for it. They had tried to warn me about Silver Glade, about my mate, and I had ignored them and the signs.
Again, I search for Vigo, but his cougar form isn’t visible anywhere in the mess of bodies littering the floor.
Some of the attackers are being hauled off, still alive, by my enforcers, and I shift into my human form to bark out orders. “Keep these ones alive. All of them. Don’t leave them unattended for a minute!”
I won’t make the same mistake I made last time. I need answers this time, and I won’t go weeks without leads.
But first, I need to find my mate and my Beta.
It doesn’t take me long to find Madison in the aftermath. She remains above it all, her wings fluttering nervously around the chandeliers as if she’s afraid to land. And she should be. She has quite a bit of answering to do.
“Get down here.” The command in my voice leaves no room for argument.
Reluctantly, she lowers herself to my level, knowing there is no escape, and morphs into her human form as she lands in a molt of black feathers.
“Are you okay?” she breathes, extending her hands toward me. “Are you hurt?”
