I rose up out of my jaguar form, ignoring the aches and pangs where I’d have new scars tomorrow. Then I brought my hands together and started to clap.
Around the room, my kin and the other alphas were gradually shifting back. Most of them joined my applause. Ren’s head swiveled as she took in our response, looking startled and then, with a lift of her chin that made my heart swell with affection, owning it. Not a princess of flames anymore. The woman before me was every inch a queen.
I walked up to her and took her hand. “He got what was coming to him,” I said in a low voice. “You were amazing, Ren.”
I leaned in to kiss her, and someone gave an exhausted but still joyful whoop in the crowd. All of my kin had to feel it now—that my bond with my mate had been consummated, that their own desires could bring them new feline children after all these years. But that wasn’t the only reason to celebrate.
Ren kissed me back hard, as if replenishing her strength through the meeting of our lips. I was happy to give anything she needed to take. She touched my cheek, finding the claw mark just below my eye that hadn’t yet sealed. I shook my head to tell her not to fret about that. The wound only stung a little while I stood here next to her.
Then I turned to face my kin and raised our joined hands in the air in a gesture of triumph. “The rogues and the traitors among our kin have been put down. This is the security a dragon shifter brings us. A new age for us is about to begin. An age when shifters will work together against our enemies, and live and love without the shadow of violence hanging over us.”
“Here’s to the dragon shifter!” someone—I thought Silvan—shouted from our audience.
“To the dragon shifter!” a bunch of voices joined in. Some wary, some limping, but all bright-eyed, several of my kin slunk over to show their respects to Ren, as if they’d only just met her.
Better late than never. A smile crept over my face as I watched them bob their heads and press their hands to hers, murmuring words of gratitude and encouragement. No one here had ever seen a battle like this on our home ground before. And no one here had seen a dragon fight like Ren just had.
Even a cat could appreciate the strength she’d shown—and the mercy.
My gaze traveled away from her to those we’d lost despite my mate’s courage and all of our best efforts. Coreen’s husband, Raoul, had taken a fatal bullet to the chest. The rogues had dealt fatal flows to a few others in the fray. A couple of my attendants who’d rushed in to help had fallen and not gotten up. And there were many kin alive but too weakened from their wounds to stand.
Several more attendants had slipped into the room now that the chaos had settled. I motioned them over. “Bring our injured kin to the medical room, quickly. And we’ll need to arrange a funeral for the dead.” I paused. Not all of the dead. Phillipe had lost the right to that respect, and the rogues had never earned it to begin with. “The rogues we’ll burn too, elsewhere.”
They nodded and ran to follow my orders. Coreen had gone to kneel by her husband, resting her hand on his forehead, her shoulders slumped. “I’ll help see to him,” she said in a rough voice to the attendants who’d joined her. Her gaze found mine.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
Her mouth twisted. “He fought well. He didn’t know how to stand back. It wasn’t his nature.” She looked over my shoulder, toward Ren, and then back to me. “Thank you,” she added. “Maybe we have gone too long without a dragon shifter.”
“I have no intention of losing this one,” I said, and she managed a hint of a smile.
I made my way back to Ren. Some of my kin were still clustered around her, fawning over her. She was holding herself straight, answering them all warmly, but I could sense the exhaustion in her. My mate had fought too many battles in the last few weeks.
I wrapped my arms around her from behind. Even with the pain of my healing wounds, the feel of her bare skin against mine was heaven. I pressed a kiss to her shoulder and murmured in her ear, “Shall I escort you back to your rooms? I can’t imagine how big a break you need after all that.”
Ren’s lips twitched. She leaned into my embrace for a moment. But her eyes traveled across the room to where her human friend was standing.
“I think there are a few things I need to take care of before I get to do any resting,” she said.
*
Ren
I walked over to Kylie tentatively, watching for any sign that I’d come close enough. She’d never seen my dragon form before, and her first time, all she’d seen me do was clobber rogues and fry them into cinders. And then I’d sliced open a guy’s throat right in front of her.
She’d already been having trouble coping with the violence she’d been faced with. And now I was right in the middle of it. Maybe she’d just want to head right home and never speak to me again.
My best friend saw me coming and moving forward to meet me. I stopped, letting her set the pace. To my surprise, she strode right up to me and threw her arms around me, not seeming to care that I was naked and a little bloody.
“Oh my God, Ren,” she said. “I was so scared for you. But you were such a badass! Holy shit, those rogues didn’t know what hit them, did they? Fucking assholes.”
I hugged her back with a halting laugh. “You were scared for me? I was freaking terrified one of them would hurt you.”
“Aw, I had my eagle bodyguard fending them off. No problems there. And I got in a couple hits of my own.” A tremor ran through her body, but she sucked in a breath and kept her voice steady. “I mean it. You were amazing.”
My heart felt as if it had cracked open. My own breath came in almost a sob. Kylie pulled back to stare at my face. “What’s wrong?”
“I just— Maybe it was stupid. I’ve been so worried that this whole... well, everything would be too much for you.” I waved to the remains of the battle around us. “It’s not what the shifter community is usually like. At least, from what the guys have told me it isn’t. But everything is such a mess right now. I don’t want to have to fight, but I do have to. People are dying... You shouldn’t have to deal with all that.”
“Hey,” my bestie said firmly. She gripped my shoulder until I met her eyes. “I don’t have to. But I want to. The second F in BFF stands for forever, remember? How much shit did we get into and then back out of when we were in New York? So the stuff you’re mixed up in now is a little scarier—fine. Maybe I need to take a step back sometimes, but I’m still in this with you.” A grin broke over her face. “My best friend is a dragon. How many people can say that?”
I really laughed then, and squeezed her with another hug. “You’re the best, Kylie. I’m sorry I was shutting you out.”
“I get it,” Kylie said gently. “Just don’t do it again, you hear?”