She cares about family.
Aye, family. Let’s not talk about the mess of ours.
His beast grunted. It’s not your fault.
Maybe not. But it’s never easy being related to a group of traitors.
At that, his beast fell silent and Grant pushed aside all thoughts of Faye or traitors. Inverness should be coming up in a few minutes. Grant couldn’t afford to fuck up his first important mission as head Protector. Not just because of his pride, but an entire hospital of humans was also at stake.
Increasing the beat of his wings, Grant finally spotted a few dragons flying and diving around a building. That had to be the hospital where Holly Anderson was being held hostage.
Judging by the numbers, Grant and his rescue team had the advantage.
Yet he’d learned his lesson the hard way about being too cocky, so he approached the hospital with care. The rogue dragons could have others lying in wait with weaponry to knock Grant and his team out of the sky.
A few seconds later he was able to make out a green dragon Grant had known all his life—Roderick McFarland.
His dragon roared. Roderick is worst of all because he’s our uncle. We must destroy him.
As much as Grant agreed, he was the more level-headed of the two. We’ll see, dragon, we’ll see. Saving the humans is our top priority.
Before his dragon could say anything else, Grant roared the command to engage. Kai did the same.
Grant’s team barreled in opposite directions, the dragons engaging the enemies in pairs. Well, except for Grant and Kai, who would fight on their own.
Kai took on the dragon circling the hospital just as Grant headed for his uncle.
Roderick spotted him and snarled. Even without words, Grant understood his uncle’s disdain for him. After all, Grant had stayed with Lochguard rather than join the half of his family who had rejected Finn’s leadership. They’d left the clan to forge a new path.
His beast snarled again. Traitors, the lot of them.
The only good thing from it all was the fact Grant knew his uncle’s weaknesses and strengths.
Grant dove toward Roderick and went for his weaker left wing. But the older dragon dropped out of the sky just in time to avoid the sting of Grant’s talons.
His uncle may be thirty years his senior, but Grant had learned most of his tricks from Roderick. Taking down the older dragon would be tricky.
Still, Grant had other training to rely on from his time with the British Army. Beating his wings, he rose several hundred feet in the air and hovered. Roderick stayed c
loser to the ground and watched him.
Turning away from his uncle, Grant flew toward the hospital for a few seconds before flipping in mid-air and folding his wings and limbs against his body. He dropped quickly through the sky.
His uncle had barely started to move before Grant crashed into his uncle’s back.
Pushing off the other dragon’s hide, Grant managed to jump back into the sky. Grant’s attack plus the extra downward force caused Roderick to spin out of control toward the open space near the hospital car park.
His uncle opened his wings right before he crashed to the ground. In the next heartbeat, Roderick moved. The last second action saved his life.
Grant dove down to keep his uncle restrained, but in the blink of an eye, his uncle shifted into his human form and hobbled toward a nearby copse of trees.
Grant’s dragon growled. Follow him. We can’t let him escape.
He glanced toward the other dragons fighting and noticed a few more traitors had joined the fray. We must help the others.
No, we should—
Grant threaded his inner voice with dominance. Stop it, dragon. We can hunt down Roderick later. He’s hurt and won’t get far.