Now the entire room was quiet. Keegan, the alpha, slightly taller than Logan, stepped out from behind the pool table. His sandy-blond hair was cut in a short military style and his presence commanded attention. I had instinctively known he was the alpha earlier, before he had even introduced himself as such.
“Then humanity goes extinct as well,” he said, “and the druids and hunters rule the Earth, taking what’s left of the shifters and sorcerers as their slaves.”
“Jesus.” I involuntarily shuddered and I saw Cooper make the Catholic sign of the cross over his chest. Oops. “What do you mean ‘what’s left’ of the shifters and sorcerers?” I asked Keegan.
He looked solemn. “Shifters are half human. If humanity dies, then so does our humanity. We would be stuck in our animal forms.”
I gasped. That sounded awful. “And the sorcerers?”
Logan raked his hands through his hair. “We assume the ones who aren’t pure blooded would become … monsters.”
My eyes widened and I turned back to Nadine. “So, Logan has been keeping the entirety of humanity alive by himself?”
Nadine rolled her eyes. “Careful, sweetheart, his ego doesn’t need a boost.” She winked at Logan and he smiled sheepishly at her.
They had history together, I could tell. Or maybe they were dating. Last dragon on Earth, tatted-up hottie? He was definitely taken. My dragon shuddered within me at the thought; she didn’t like it one bit. These new feelings were weird; I didn’t know what to think of them. Were they my thoughts or hers? Were we one?
“Dragons have powerful magic. Even one can hold enough magic for all of humanity. We are bound to them,” Logan told me. “But with two…”
The alpha stepped closer to Logan. “Do you think she can?” Keegan asked him. He seemed doubtful.
Logan eyed me seriously. “Yes,” he said with conviction.
Keegan shrugged. “She’s smaller, untrained.”
I didn’t know what they were referring to, but at the comment of my small stature I scoffed and stood. I was 5’8, which was tall for a girl, and yes I was thin but had somewhat of an athletic build from years of soccer. Technically, I loathed regular exercise, and the Grand Canyon hike had nearly killed me, but I was strong ... on the inside.
“I’m not small,” I growled at the alpha, and that earned me a smile from Nadine and a few of the other packmates.
The alpha seemed to look at me with amusement. “Don’t get your panties in a bunch. I was talking about your dragon. She is small and untrained, wild and reckless.”
It felt like an insult, but since I knew nothing about dragons or their size, I decided just to pin him with a glare. As I did, a low rumble emanated from his throat and his jaw clenched. Logan leaned into my ear, bringing with him the scent of the forest. “Staring an alpha in the eyes isn’t a great idea unless you plan on challenging him.”
Oh. Shit. I looked down at the alpha’s neck and cleared my throat.
Keegan laughed suddenly, full of warmth and amusement. “She’s got spunk, Logan. You might be right.”
“What are you talking about?” I couldn’t stand being in the dark when they were talking about me.
Logan peered at me behind his ruffled dark locks. “I think once I train you, you will be strong enough to harness the magic—take a bit back from the druids and even the scales. I can only hold so much, which is why the humans are sick.”
That sounded intriguing but … I wasn’t interested. “Actually, I was wondering if you could make it go away. Make me normal again?”
The entire room froze. One of the guys even dropped a beer and it shattered to the ground, sending glass everywhere. Even silent Dom leaned forward from his dark perch in the corner of the room.
Logan’s mouth was frozen open, gaping like a fish out of water.
“What?” I defended my position. “I want my life back! I wasn’t born into this like you were. Some freak thing happened to me a few weeks ago and now you want me to start stealing magic from druids and start training? I just want to see the world. Paris, Ireland—I have plans.”
I knew I was pouting and probably seemed petty, but come on, they couldn’t really expect me to … what, live here forever harnessing dragon magic? It was all ridiculous. I had accepted that magic was real—fine, someone put a curse on me or something. But there had to be a way to remove it.
I didn’t realize how much my question must have hurt them until I noticed the tears swimming in Nadine’s eyes. She had those blunt cut bangs and wore a red bandana so she was perfectly channeling a rockabilly chick. And now that I had her in tears, I felt like shit.
“She doesn’t know any better,” Logan told the group.
Sophie, the other female, who had been shooting eye daggers at me all night, stepped forward now, her body clenched, and it was clear she was seething with anger. She was one of those tall athletic blondes that commanded the attention of every pecker in the room.
“We’ve spent eternity guarding Logan so the humans can have a fighting chance! Every night before we go to bed, we pray, we beg—do you know what we ask for?” Her voice shook and I felt like crap for getting everyone all emotional.
“What?” I croaked.
She thrust her hands my way. “More dragons! And here you are and you don’t even want it! Unbelievable.”
Keegan growled suddenly and the blonde quickly lowered her head in submission.
“I understand where you’re all coming from, but you need to understand where I’m coming from.” I directed my next question at the blond girl. “Sophie, right?” She nodded, still giving me her best resting bitch face. “You were raised your entire life knowing you were a … shifter, right? That your life would involve protecting Logan or whatever. Right?”
She nodded, a proud look on her face, making her upturned nose even more annoying. “My mother trained me to protect the skyborn from the age of three.”
“Yeah, well, what if tomorrow morning you woke up completely human, in a new apartment with new roommates and a bunch of other crazy stuff? What is the one thing you would want?”
She grit her jaw, silent. After a few beats, she answered, “To be a shifter again.”
I nodded. “Exactly.”
Logan placed a hand on my shoulder. “Alright. I think that’s enough for toni—”
He was cut off by a shrill hissing sound. It was like a massive tea kettle had gone off and I could actually feel pressure building around my body. My ears hurt and my chest was constricting, making it hard to breathe.
“DOWN!” Nadine wrapped both arms around Logan and I, yanking us to the ground just as a sonic boom blasted every piece of glass in the room, shattering it to bits. Nadine was surprisingly strong, and I fell to the ground hard, sending a shooting pain up my elbow. I grabbed my ears, sure that they were bleeding. Shaking my head, I tried to clear the ringing that now whined there. Nadine’s clothes tore; the faint sound of cracking bones filled the room, and she changed into her wolf form. I looked up, slightly dazed, to see Logan crouched before me, fighting his own change. Black scales were crawling down his face, his neck, his left arm.
Whoa.
The entire outer wall of the entertainment room had been blown out and a troop of hunters now stood behind a man with a bald head and red tattoos—the same man from my dragon sleep-induced dream. How was that possible?
“Druid,” Logan spat as the pack assembled before him. Four had shifted to their animal form while the other two stayed human. The humans, Gear and Cooper, were pulling crazy weapons out from behind their backs and from inside of their boots. Cooper had what looked like some small throwing knives in his hands, the tips glowing a fiery yellow, while Gear was holding a sleek black gun in each hand.
I went to move and Logan’s tattooed hand reached backward suddenly, grasping my right ankle tightly.