17
Ryder
Maybe I wasn’t usedto talking to the pack members over the phone, but something about Kelsey’s call left me on edge. I replayed her words over and over in my mind, and nothing seemed off. Still, I couldn’t shake this feeling.
I blamed it on the earlier events. My dragon was still angry with me. A human had stabbed our mate, and we hadn’t been able to stop it. Humans were slow and ineffective. Yet, she’d been able to drive that blade into Ness’s skin with ease because I’d been distracted.
The dragon wasn’t about to forgive me.
Ness’s pained surprise flashed through my mind again. I couldn’t escape it. Each time I shook the image away, the dragon shoved it back in my face.
Failure.
Disappointment.
Do your job, damn it.
That wasn’t easy when I had several things on my plate at once. Not only had I become the new Alpha of the Lakesedge pack and found my mate, but that same mate kept me at an arm’s length while the entire world tried to kill her. Then I had my new Alpha duties.
Like replacing a flat tire for one of my shifters.
I would teach Kelsey how to do it herself. As a shifter, she had the strength. All she needed was someone patient enough to teach her how to do it. I wouldn’t have minded, under different circumstances.
A bit of relief hit me when a car appeared on the side of the road and a familiar figure stood beside it. I pulled up behind Kelsey’s car and got out to help her. When she turned towards me, she mouthed a single, silent word.
Sorry.
I tensed. With nothing to put my back to, my beast surged towards the surface. The dragon’s arcana unfurled over my skin. Scales appeared like a cascade of dark water that flickered in the sunlight. They covered my most tender areas, areas that wolves might try to bite when they attacked.
My dragon had learned this lesson the hard way. Marcus and Jackson had poisoned me once before. Back then, I’d had Cerri’s help. Between her and Ness, they’d saved me. I didn’t have either at my side right now.
Though I pulled an air current towards myself so I could catch any scents in my surroundings, I should have known better. Marcus and Jackson had been hiding their scents for a while now.
One hit me in the back. I fumbled forward from the impact. Before I could catch myself, the other hit me in the side. Together, they forced me to the ground. I managed to bend my knee and catch myself before I fell prone altogether.
The wolves were relentless. The one to my right—I couldn’t discern who it was without scent because their markings were so similar—snapped at my forearm. In that instant, I caught a glimpse of the poison pouch stuck to the roof of his mouth. Though I couldn’t smell it, I knew it was there. His teeth glanced off the scales along my arm, thankfully. The other wolf, though, backed away.
I tried to see where the second wolf went, but the back-to-back attacks from the first held my attention. The scales didn’t cover every inch of my skin, so I had to make sure the first wolf didn’t catch a vulnerable spot, or the poison would enter my bloodstream again.
When would they stop playing dirty? I hoped they would run out of these pouches they used to poison me. That, or they ran out of the antidote that they needed in order to put those damned pouches in their mouths.
Since I couldn’t deal with wolf number two, I caught wolf one by the snout. I pried his mouth open and used a claw to rip the poison pouch from his mouth.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry…” Kelsey crouched low behind her car. Her voice shook with guilt and fear, though there was nothing I could do about that right now.
I flung the poison pouch off the side before releasing the wolf’s muzzle. The shifter scrabbled against the pavement and launched himself once more. Though I ducked his assault, his brother caught my leg. This second wolf didn’t bite. He must have realized that I was using my scales as a shield.
Instead, the second wolf threw his weight at my leg and buckled my knee. The first wolf doubled down and slammed into my back right after. I put out my hand to catch myself before my face hit the pavement.
This was growing tiring. Ness had issued a command. These shifters weren’t supposed to return to Syracuse, much less Lakesedge. I couldn’t figure out how they’d managed to return. When Ness commanded me to do something, I had to struggle against its hold over me. Something had happened to my mate’s arcana.
Her command didn’t have the hold that it once had.
“Get out of my city,” I growled as I pushed myself up onto my feet.
I spread out my wings and lifted my chin. The wolves backed away for a moment. They shared a look. I tensed, waiting for their assault. Only one of them would have a poison pouch in their mouth now. I could barely tell them apart, though, so I wasn’t sure which one would have it. So long as the scent concealing spell covered them, I couldn’t smell it.
Aware that one of my shifters had hidden herself behind the car, I moved to stand between the car and our assailants. I couldn’t hear Kelsey anymore, though. Her crying had subsided.