Page 46 of Dragon's Fate (Dragon Shifter's Mates 4)

I nudged Kylie in the side with my elbow. "When you letme."

West's underlings caught up with us as we reached the field where the avian jets and the canine one we'd arrived in were waiting. I'd only made it two steps toward the latter when an eerie sensation rippled over my skin, raising the hairs on myarms.

An instant later, a pale slender form appeared as if out of the sunlight in front ofme.

"Forgive the unexpected intrusion, dragon shifter, alphas," the fae man said in a cool voice. "My monarch wanted me to reach you as quickly as possible. I have just one question before I give you her answer: If we help you now, do you swear that you will come to our aid in a similar time ofneed?”

My heart skipped a beat. “Ren,” West said beside me,cautioning.

Sure, the promise was vague—but how could I say no, considering how much I was asking of them? I didn’t let myself second-guess myanswer.

“Yes,” I said. “Of course. I swearit.”

The fae man gave me a slight bob of his head. “Then we will assist in your fight against thevampires."

Just like that? It took me a second to catch my breath. "Thank you. Tell your monarch thank you from me too. What do you need from us to make thiswork?"

"Tell us where you need us to be and where you will be,” he said with a thin, shimmering smile. “We can handle therest."

* * *

The sky deepened from pink to purple as the sun sank toward the horizon. The summer heat cooled in the breeze. I moved my weight from one foot to the other, trying to curb myrestlessness.

Beside me, West set his hand on my shoulder. We watched the gate to his estate together, at least two hundred of our kin gathered around us and spread out all along the stone wall, as if we’d see the first sign of the vampiresthere.

Really, West would get a call on that phone in his pocket from one of the scouts down the road before we got our first glimpse. The vamps wouldn’t be on us the second the sun set. They had to get out here from wherever they were holed up first. But we knew they’d been gathering forces—and their new armored truckstoo.

It wasn’t just our kin, and Kylie of course, with us. My gaze slid to one of the softly glowing figures standing near me in thecourtyard.

A dozen fae had been waiting for us when we’d landed at the canine estate. Three of them were in my view now. The other nine had taken positions along the wall so there’d be one in range no matter where the vampires struck. The other alphas had reported similar numbers at the other estates. They’d also arrived at the towns I’d told them seemed most indanger.

West tensed, presumably noticing my glance. My stomach knotted. What if I’d made the wrong decision? The fae could decide to turn on us after all, to make sure the bloodsuckers wiped us out, so shifters wouldn’t trouble them anymoreeither.

I’d invited them in. Offered our throats to them, in away.

It was too late to take back that choice now. I just had to hope my instincts had beenright.

My restlessness drew me away from West to the nearest fae. The woman was as tall and slender as all her kind, but I had the sense she was on the younger side, whatever that meant in fae terms. She gave me a faint smile when I joinedher.

“Is there anything else I’ll need to do?” I asked. “Or do I just have to stay near you and start breathing myfire?”

She nodded. “From what I understand and what my monarch said, that’s all we’ll need. I’ve already tapped into your energy with my magic. When you stir up that fire, I’ll be able to channel it—for my own use, and to stream it through me to all the other fae who’ve comeout.”

“Even the ones across thecountry?”

“It isn’t so far,” she said, as if she were in the habit of taking a jaunt from one ocean to the other in her daily walk. “We are all connected, you know. We can reach each other without much effort at all. Otherwise it would be very lonely, needing to always stay close to ourhomes.”

Oh. So they had some sort of telepathic communication? I guessed that made sense, when she put it that way. No wonder the fae leader near the dragon shifter estate had known about all the offenses the shifters had made in other faeterritories.

The fae woman paused. “We fae live a long time, you know,” she went on. “Longer than shifters. One of the elders in my domain spoke to me once of sharing fire with a dragon shifter. She said it was the most thrilling experience of her life. I’m saddened by the reason you needed our help—but I’m excited to be a part ofit.”

My eyebrows shot up. “Really?” I said. “I, ah, got the impression you were all pretty uncertain about having anything to do withshifters.”

“Some of us, maybe,” she said. “Some didn’t have anyone to pass on those memories. There’ve been so many bad ones in between. But I don’t think it makes sense for any of us to beafraidofyou.”

My stomach started to unclench. Afraid of us? Was that what it came down to? I guessed it did. All of us, afraid of how the other could hurt us, striking out to try to defend ourselves from offenses no one had even committedyet.

We should have been better than that, the monarch had said. We all should have. And maybe we could be,tonight.

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