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I could take her home with me tonight. My dragon surges at the thought and snaps my wings wider.

“But if you lose,” Levi continues, “you get the fuck off my land and stay off it. A permanent ban. And good luck winning my approval after that, because you’ve got a long way to go.”

Aya steps forward. “No,” she cries. “Stop, please, you can’t do this⁠—”

“I accept your challenge,” I answer over her. I hold her eyes and try to tell her it will be okay. Her fear cuts through the scent of my blood.

“Form a barrier,” Jacob commands. The wolves lock into a circle around us that Aya can’t break through.

I pull my wings into my back and face Levi. His eyes glow brighter while his wolf pushes closer to the surface.

He shifts with a crack of bones. Fur erupts across his skin until a massive silver-gray wolf stands where he was. His scent hits me hot and thick with Levi’s fury. He’s smaller and leaner than Jacob’s, but he moves like he’s already won.

The shift rips through me as my dragon comes roaring up to meet him. My skin splits into midnight scales veined with Stormscale blue that pulses with the magic I inherited from my father. My wings spread over us and black out the stars. I tower over Levi’s wolf with my tail lashing behind me. Smoke rolls from my nostrils.

I want this win as bad as my dragon does. He stretches into his full size.

Levi’s wolf doesn’t hesitate. He launches himself at me faster than I expected. I rear back out of reach and swipe at him with talons that could tear through steel, but he’s already moving. He darts under my strike and sinks his fangs into my foreleg. They punch through my scales and grind against bone.

I bellow through the pain and try to shake him loose. Levi’s wolf only bites down harder until my blood runs down my leg. I slam my tail into his side to break his hold. He rolls across the clearing and scrambles up with his teeth bared.

He’s fast and never wastes a move. My dragon circles him and watches for an opening. Being bigger isn’t doing a damn thing. We’re going to have to fight smarter than this.

I’m ready for him when Levi’s wolf charges again. I meet him head-on and snap at his flank as he tries to get past. I rip into his shoulder and get a mouthful of fur and hot blood. He yelps and twists out of my grip to go for my wing joint instead. He clamps down deep in the membrane.

He hangs on with all his weight and drags it toward the ground until it tears. I go blind with pain and thrash. My tail sweeps the clearing and nearly takes out Kane, who jumps back in time.

Levi’s wolf springs away with my blood dripping from his muzzle. He’s toying with me, and I’m too slow to stop him.

My dragon wants to breathe fire and end this the way dragons always do. Heat builds at the back of my mouth. I swallow it down. Levi said a fair fight, man to man. If I burn Aya’s father in front of her, I lose my mate for good.

His wolf is on me again. He bites my tail, rakes my belly open, and tears chunks out of my wings. Every time I try to pin him, he slips away and hits me from a different angle.

I’m losing. I’m younger and bigger, but Levi has been fighting for centuries.

Blood pours from my wounds and turns my dark scales crimson. We’re hurt bad and slowing down. My legs tremble under me. Aya presses against the wall of wolves and has to watch all of it. Her fear comes through the bond, making me sick.

My dragon won’t accept defeat. He wrestles me for control and wins.

The Stormscale magic stirs inside me and makes my hide prickle. The blue in my scales burns brighter. I push back against it, but he’s too far gone. Clouds boil up over the clearing with thunder rumbling in the distance. I try to remind him what happened the last time my storm got away from me. Don’t do this in front of her. He isn’t listening.

Levi’s wolf lunges for my neck. My dragon roars, and the clouds split open. Blue lightning crashes down in jagged bolts and throws Levi backward with his fur singed. The crack of it rattles the windows of the house. The rest of the wolves scatter and yelp as it strikes the ground all around us.

Aya breaks through the barrier as another bolt comes down. She runs at me barefoot across the scorched grass with her arms out and her mouth open on a scream I can’t hear over the storm.

It hits her in the chest with a flash of blue. She drops to the ground and doesn’t move.

My dragon chokes off his lightning. The clouds break apart as fast as they came. I shift back in a rush of pain. I stumble to her on bare feet, naked and bleeding from everywhere Levi’s wolf got me. I drop to my knees and take her face in my shaking hands. She’s too hot and smells scorched. “Aya. Aya, no, please⁠—”

The mate bond has pulled at me since I first caught her scent. Now it’s down to a faint flicker I can hardly find. It slips away when I reach for it.

“I killed her,” I sob. “I killed her, I killed my mate⁠—”

Levi shifts back and crosses the clearing to us, as naked as I am, with a ragged bite in his shoulder. He kneels beside Aya and listens with his fingers pressed over her heart.

“She’s alive,” he says, and I want to believe him. “Unconscious, but alive. Her heart is still beating. Can’t you hear it?”

I strain to listen and get nothing but my dragon wailing. I don’t have the strength to stop crying. “I didn’t mean to,” I gasp out. “I can’t control it, I’ve never been able to control it⁠—”