She pitched forward and gave her body to the snarling animal in her middle. Her fox took off at a sprint, but she wasn’t running away. She was leading the others to the exact spot she wanted this to happen. It had been her favorite place as a child. It was a clearing she would sneak to when life was heavy, and she would lie in the grass and count the stars.
It was snowing again, big flurries falling all around her and settling on her thick coat. Behind her, she could hear the excited yips of the hunting foxes. Hunting her. Bloodthirsty little beasties. Vyr was right about them being lethal. Wild foxes didn’t have pack mentality like this, but shifter foxes were a different beast altogether. She ran through the unmarred, fresh snow, her paws crunching in the white stuff. She hoped she could make it to the clearing before they attacked. She could recognize their yipping voices in this form. Leslie, Jack, Mom, Dad, Darren…
There it was. She could see it straight ahead, the clearing where she had spent so much time alone. This would be her last time alone here. It would be her last time alone ever. That thought made her braver, so at the mouth of the clearing, she spun and faced them with her lips curled back to expose her teeth, her front end lowered to the snow. Nevada snarled a challenge. She was ready. Who’s first?
It was Jack who barreled down on her. Perfect. She could see the sea of foxes converging on her, but at least she could brawl the brother who had pushed her around all these years and made her feel worthless. She ran at him and met him, clashed so hard it nearly knocked the wind out of her, but she didn’t back down. Not an inch. She clamped her teeth onto his neck and shook her head as hard as she could to do maximum damage. And then the den fell on her.
Pain.
Pain was everything.
Pain was her whole life in this moment.
She felt ripped to shreds. Like she wasn’t even in her skin anymore. Iron filled the air. Red painted the snow. Not only hers since she fought like she never had before, but it was a hundred to one. There was a part of her that grew terrified because her face was hurt, bitten into, but they weren’t stopping. Maul her. Mom’s order rattled around her head like a ghost dragging chains.
Did maul her mean kill her?
She couldn’t see the clouds anymore. Couldn’t see the sky or the trees. She couldn’t see anything but red fur and razor-sharp teeth.
But she could hear. It started as a rattling, soft sound and got louder by the second. The earth shook with something she didn’t understand. And then a deafening roar of a grizzly bear shattered the battle sounds of the foxes. It filled the air like a hurricane wind and promised blood, promised death.
A layer of foxes was knocked clean off her with one massive swipe of a paw. Long, curved claws barely missed her belly as Nox blasted her attackers into the woods like they weighed nothing. He was frenzy. He was fury. His hackles were raised, and his massive body was flexed and powerful. He was so fast as he bit and clawed and swiped. He didn’t stray far from her when he chased. A few paces, then right back to standing over her. She was frozen in shock. He was really here, really going to war with the den for her.
Her Nox. Hers. Her man might be damaged and a loner, but he had her back. Always. And she had his.
Nevada pushed herself up onto all fours, splayed her legs, and ignored the pain of her muzzle as she bared her teeth at the foxes ducking in and out, testing them for a weak side. Too bad for them there wasn’t one. Nox was a monster. Her monster. He didn’t back down, didn’t back up. He pushed forward, no matter how many teeth touched him.
And when those foxes wised up and attacked at once, covering her and Nox completely, for a moment of terror, Nevada thought they would lose. She thought they would lose this battle, lose each other, lose their future, lose everything.
Right up until the point a big, meaty, shiny black hand squeezed the neck of a fox on top of Nevada and chucked it into a tree. The silverback blasted his fists onto the ground, peeled his lips back over impossibly long canines, and roared.
Holy shit. Torren had come, and that meant…
Nevada jerked her attention to the clearing behind her where a wave of heaviness was crushing her cell by cell. Nox and Torren were brawling, but Vyr was walking slowly toward them, head held high, eyes like silver fire, face contorted with rage. “Stop hurting them,” he said in a soft, lethal voice.
Some of the foxes looked uncertain and scattered, but most were too deep in war and bloodlust to realize the danger they were in.
“I said stop!” Vyr yelled. The power of his words formed a crack from his feet that split the earth wide open. Panicked, Nevada scrambled to the side so she wouldn’t be swallowed by the break in the ground. Others weren’t so lucky. Some foxes fell in.
Nox was on the other side with Torren, but with one fiery look, he shook off a pair of foxes and bolted for Nevada. He charged and then jumped over the splitting earth. He landed bad, sinking his claws into the edge, half his body in the hole. It was getting wider and wider, and now there was fire. Vyr was lighting this place up. Plumes of black smoke billowed, and trees burned. Foxes were scattering, and Nevada was yipping at Nox. Pull yourself up, pull yourself up, hurry!
With a grunt, Nox’s massive grizzly pitched upward and gathered Nevada under him just as a stream of fire blistered her skin. It was over quick, but Nox tensed and grunted in pain.
No, no, no!
“Vyr!” Torren growled out in that deep, rough voice of his silverback. “Enough!”
“Hear me!” Vyr yelled. “This isn’t your territory anymore. These are my mountains now. Nevada Foxburg is under my protection. Even look at her again, and I’ll light your fuckin’ den on fire and devour every last one of your ashes. I am The Red Dragon. Bring trouble, and I’ll expose every dirty, violent, dark corner of your shifter culture and will make it my personal mission to destroy every fox den from the inside out.”
His words rang with such honesty, all Nevada could do was lay under Nox’s protective body and watch the Son of the Dragon claim the territory.
And then he did something horrifying. As Torren yelled, “Nooo!” Vyr crouched and leaped into the sky. In an instant, a monstrous dragon with scales as red as fire and wings ripped at the edges like some battle-hardened gargoyle lifted into the air, beating his wings so hard to get airborne the snow was blown away. The hurricane-force wind made Nox and Nevada skid thirty yards into the clearing before they jerked to a stop.