Rhys was the first to shift. The massive white lion surged out of him and locked his jaws around the arm of Jasper’s second. The beady-eyed man howled with pain as he was shaken from side to side like a ragdoll.
Dash and Colette were the first through the line. Then there were Ashfords spread out on either side of them. She recognized others from Bearden, too, like the Strathorn firefighters and some of the police force. Above, a huge dragon beat his wings and sent jets of flame against the lions on the ground.
Sage bolted to her feet right along with them. She twisted around to find Hailey. The woman still crouched in the dirt, eyes wide. She stuck out her hand, hoping to haul her up. They needed to run. Somewhere. Anywhere. Staying on two legs in the middle of the madness was a sure way to find themselves on the wrong end of fangs.
“Not so fast,” Jasper hissed in her ear. He twisted her arm behind her back. Pain shot straight into the shoulder, the pressure threatening to pop it out of joint.
Fur brushed against her mind. Against her fingers. Over her skin.
Sage sucked in a breath and grinned.
There was no split second between shapes. No feeling her bones break apart. Not even a single second of hesitation. Her people needed her, and Broken help anyone who tried to keep them apart.
Sage threw her head back and roared as her lioness ripped out of her.
She hit the ground running, all four paws digging into the dirt to launch her faster into the next step after the asshole trying to escape. His own shift shimmered his frame, then sent him darting around clusters of fighting.
Sage kept on his heels. She barreled past Lindley standing over the body of their father. She dodged Trent viciously shaking Garrett not far from where Hailey crouched, her hands wrapped around the thick end of a branch.
Twisting and turning, Sage dodged the claws reaching for her, sending her own flashing against fangs that got too close. She couldn’t let him get away. Not this time. He’d been beaten and had his legs taken out from under him before, and he’d still rebuilt his numbers. She was done living under the threat of his return.
She jumped, clearing the back of one male, and landed right on Jasper. Her claws sank into his flesh as she tore into him with her fangs.
He’d made her so small and scared. He’d kept her trapped even when the physical bonds were removed.
No more. No fucking more.
Pain and destruction were the only languages he knew how to speak, and he’d left her fluent in both.
Then Lilah was there on his other side. Her lip lifted to bare her fangs. The noise of her snarl dragged at his attention, and Jasper retreated just enough to keep them both in his line of sight.
Lilah struck first, avoiding his teeth and going for his back end. Sage moved as soon as the lion’s attention spun to his other attacker. She slid in, raked her claws along his front, then ducked away again before he could nail her with a returning blow.
They worked back and forth, each taking their turn to crowd closer and exact some bloody revenge. She slashed at him for every time he held her down and dragged his claws across her skin. She bit him to pay back all the days she spent locked in a bedroom, dreading his return. Raw fury powered her forward again and again, until his hide was streaked with red.
Lilah threw herself over his back. The sudden weight stumbled him, which was the opening Sage needed to slam her shoulder against his side. Jasper lost the last bit of balance and went down.
Sage scrambled out of the way of flashing fangs, latched her jaws around his throat, and yanked her head back.
Jasper Crowley, propagator of war, hater of humans, her supposed mate, and the man cruel enough to scar her for life, stilled, and a great weight lifted from her shoulders.
“Get in the cave!”
Sage whipped her head around to see Trent sprinting through the chaos. Above him, the sky glowed red with flames.
He ducked long enough to grab Hailey’s hand and jerked her to her feet. Eyes wide with fear, she didn’t try to yank her arm away or ask any questions. She simply ran.
Sage turned the moment they reached her.
The others, too, ran as fast as their legs could carry them.
The dragon in the sky sucked down an audible breath, then unleashed a blaze of fire over the land.
Heat blasted against Sage’s back and urged her faster. Faster!
She barreled into a warm body, then skidded to a stop in the cool darkness.
Panted breaths were the only sounds for a long moment. Sage swept a look over the others, counting, then counting again. Rhys. Rhys wasn’t there. He wasn’t with them. He was still—
Fire blasted from the dragon again. Sage tried to tear away her eyes as the path turned straight for their hiding place, but one figure tumbled inside before the flames scorched the ground at the mouth of the cave.
Rhys!
The white of his mane was blackened and singed in places, and blood still dripped freely from too many wounds for her to count, but he was there. Still breathing. Still alive.
Which was more than she could say for the prides outside.
The only sound that remained was the snap and crackle of flames and the steady beat of wings overhead.
Chapter 27
Rhys woke suddenly, but didn’t move. Some sound pulled at him, but it was different from the gunshots of his nightmares. He held steady and still, hardly even daring to breathe while he sorted through the night noise.
Two days. That was how long it took for life to return to normal. The only sounds now were what he expected of a ranch in the middle of the night. Bugs sang their night songs, the occasional distant murmur of a cow settling
