Page 95 of Knotted By the Triad

Prey. Kill.

I beat my wings harder and flew straight toward the tower. Mei Lin disappeared from the opening before I reached it. She thought moving away from the window would save her. I slammed my body into the tower.

Stone cracked. Pain shot through my shoulder, but I barely felt it beneath the rage. I flew back. Turned. And hit it again. A section of stone broke loose and crashed toward the ground.

Behind me, the other dragons roared. I rammed the tower again. The entire structure shuddered. Cracks raced through the stone. Dust poured from the openings. I could hear Mei Lin screaming inside.

I flew back farther this time. Then I drove myself into the tower with everything I had. Stone exploded inward. The upper section buckled. Part of the wall collapsed, and Mei Lin tumbled out with it.

She screamed as she fell. For a second, satisfaction rushed through me. Then I saw her body begin to change. No. I folded my wings and dove. Mei Lin twisted in the air, trying to shift. I reached her first.

My jaws closed around her throat. Her scream stopped. I bit down. Bone crushed between my teeth. Blood sprayed into my mouth as her body went limp before she could finish transforming. I released her. Mei Lin fell away from me.

I watched her body disappear toward the ground. It was over. The thought barely formed before exhaustion hit me. The energy holding my dragon form together flickered. Wait. My wings faltered.

Wait, wait, wait.

I tried to flap harder. My body didn't listen. I was falling. I heard my alphas' roars as my dragon form fell to earth. I landed hard. The moment my feet touched the earth, the warmth inside me gave out. My dragon form disappeared.

Everything contracted at once. Scales became skin. Wings vanished. My knees buckled. I didn't even have the strength to cover myself before I started falling. Arms caught me. More than one pair. Warm bodies surrounded me as my vision blurred.

“Kai?”

“I have you.”

“Zuri.” Daemin’s hand cradled the back of my head.

“We’ve got you,” Zian whispered.

All three of my alphas had come for me. I tried to open my eyes enough to see them, but their faces blurred together above me. I could smell pine and clean rain, leather and cloves, black tea and vanilla. Safe. I was safe. My eyes closed, and I passed out in the arms of my three alphas.

***

I woke surrounded by warmth and three familiar scents. For several seconds, I didn't open my eyes. My body felt heavy, sore in places I hadn't known could hurt, but there was something comforting beneath all of it.

Pine and clean rain mixed with leather and cloves, while black tea and vanilla lingered closest to my face. An arm rested across my waist, another hand was wrapped around mine, and something warm supported my legs.

I breathed them in before memory returned in one violent rush. The tower. Mei Lin. Falling. My dragon. I jerked upright, and three men moved with me.

“Easy,” Kai said, his hands catching my shoulders. “You're safe, Zuri. You're home.”

I looked around wildly. I was in my room, tucked into my own bed, and evening light filtered through the windows. Daemin sat beside my legs while Zian occupied the other side of the bed, still holding my hand.

Kai was closest to my head, and none of them looked as though they'd gone anywhere since bringing me home.

“Mei Lin?” My throat felt dry when I spoke, and Daemin reached for the cup on the bedside table before I could ask for it.

“Dead,” he said, helping me drink. “Very dead.”

I swallowed the water and stared at him as everything came back. I remembered the tower crumbling beneath my body as I rammed into it. I remembered Mei Lin falling, my jaws closing around her throat, and the awful crunch that had ended everything.

“I killed her.”

“Yes.” Daemin took the cup when I finished and set it aside. “But she deserved it. She tried to kill you first.”

A strange feeling moved through me. I expected guilt, maybe horror, but what came instead was relief so deep my shoulders sagged beneath it. Mei Lin would never poison me, frame me, manipulate my husbands, or put me in that tower again.

She would never make another woman pay because the world hadn't given her the love she believed she deserved. Then I remembered something much more important.