Page 46 of Knotted By the Triad

MINE.

I ignored my dragon, who kept trying to distract me with thoughts of Zuri. I needed to focus. A smuggler had gotten away. We couldn’t let him escape. I crouched beside another dark spot on the forest floor and dragged two fingers through the blood staining the leaves.

Still wet. He couldn't be more than a few minutes ahead of me. I'd split from the other assassins when the trail disappeared, sending them in different directions to cut him off before he reached one of the roads leading back toward the capital.

The trail had finally picked back up and led me deeper into the forest where blood marked leaves and tree trunks, while broken branches and deep impressions in the dirt showed where he'd stumbled.

I continued forward. Inhaling deeply, trying to get a hint of the smuggler's scent on the wind. But my nose wasn’t working. One of those golems had gotten a good hit in on me, cracking my nose.

It had healed. But all I could smell was blood. I stopped walking when I noticed that the footprints had become larger and deeper in this area. A nearby bush lay crushed on its side, and a massive print had sunk several inches into the dirt. He'd shifted. My dragon stirred.

MINE.

A flash of heat rushed beneath my skin as I pressed a hand against my chest.

“What now, Beast?” I hissed.

A growl vibrated inside me. Move.

I frowned and started forward again. “I'm moving.”

Faster.

My dragon was never this chatty. The only time it talked so much was during battles when it chanted, “Kill. Make them bleed. Destroy them.” It had been agitated since the fight with the golems, but this was different. He pushed against me again, harder than before.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” I hissed.

The answer struck me so suddenly that I stopped dead in my tracks.

Mine. Here. Danger.

My head snapped up. “Zuri? She’s here? Impossible.”

Mine. Danger. Save her.

There was no reason for her to be anywhere near this place. But my dragon was raging inside me, telling me to find her. I trusted my beast. I raced forward, ducking under low branches, leaping over fallen trees.

Hurry.

I moved my legs faster, panic making my heart race. Why was she out here? Had she been kidnapped? Was she afraid? My anger mounted. Fuck not killing the smuggler. If he’d touched Zuri, he would die.

A dragon’s roar echoed in the distance. Dread chilled me to my core. Then I heard a woman scream. Zuri! A fear unlike anything I’d ever experienced took hold of me. I ran faster. Branches tore at my clothes as I raced through the forest, no longer bothering to dodge.

I needed to get to her. I couldn’t lose her. I hadn’t even told her how I felt. I hadn’t had a chance to apologize for marrying another omega or for not treating her with the love and dignity she deserved.

I blinked back tears. Fuck. I never cried. Never. Yet, my eyes were going blurry. I couldn’t lose this woman. I just couldn’t. Another roar thundered ahead. Then I heard her voice.

“Run faster, Allie!”

Damn it. The maid was here too! A scream filled the air.

Mine. Mine. Mine.

Save her. Destroy him. Faster.

“I know!” I shouted.

My dragon wanted out. For once, I didn't fight him. The shift ripped through me while I was still running. Bones expanded, muscles tore and reformed, and scales rushed over my skin as my body grew. Fabric ripped as my clothes shredded around me.