Page 8

A fire lit in Nataly's chest, burning through years’ worth of fear, grief, and questions about who she was and where she'd come from. She'd never known her mother, and her dad didn't talk about his family. When Jonas said her father was a dragon, it was like everything clicked into place. She didn't even question the truth of it. “Wait. Are you a dragon too?”

Jonas choked on his own gasp. “Not in this lifetime, the last, or the next. Fucking dragons. Your dad was the only one I ever knew.”

She glanced up to Mac, who wasn't fazed one bit by any of this conversation. “Did you know my father?”

“There are many dragons around the world, and I do not know them all. Mostly only other Red Dragon Warriors, aside from the Wyverns.”

Jonas's arm shot out and grabbed Nataly's shoulder. His eyes changed into a deep amber color and were glowing. “We'll have to discuss your dragon heritage later. Someone else is here. Or rather something else.”

Mac growled and his skin shimmered just like it had the last time he'd turned into a dragon. Uh-oh. Some serious shit was about to go down. Jonas might not be a dragon, but he was no ordinary human either. Guess she'd find out what kind pretty damn soon.

“Mo chridhe, get behind me.”

Uh, fucking dragon says what? “I'm not some baby weakling. I can fight my own battles, thank you very much. Now, what are we fighting?”

Her answer showed up right then and there. Out of the shadows around the trees and even the playground equipment, black blobs rose up and took the form of... weird lizard bat things that kind of also resembled deformed ostriches. Their skin was a dark oily color, and red eyes burned in their heads.

They made horrible screeching sounds, and the one nearest to her spit a ball of fire at her feet. Well, well, well. So these were the bastards starting fires in her district. Arresting them all probably wouldn't go over well. Hopefully Mac and Uncle Jonas had an idea how to stop them from burning down the whole park.

“Uncle Jo—“ Nat's words got caught in her throat, and she was never going to recover them because when she looked over at Jonas, he was shucking his pants and already had his shirt off. Holy shirtballs. Had the fire bat things taken over his mind and driven him to insanity?

“Nat, girl, take my gun and aim for their heads. You know, like zombies.” He thrust his holster and sidearm into her hands.

All right. If zombies showed up, she was done with the supernatural world. What was next? Unicorns? She took the gun and was about to ask Jonas what the actual fuck he thought he was doing, but once again her words got stuck in her throat as Uncle Jonas burst through the remaining clothes and turned into a giant freaking wolf.

She turned, open-mouthed, to Mac, but he wasn't standing there anymore either. His very large red dragon was.

Crap. Why did she have a feeling she was the knife in a dragon and wolf shifter gun fight? At least she had Uncle Jonas's gun, and she knew how to use it.

MACKAY

Demon wyrms crawled out of every shadow in the park, and there were a lot of them. Shadows and demons. This was going to be a fucking shitshow if he didn't stem the flow of those bastards out of hell. Right the fuck now.

It was far too late in the game for him to keep the supernatural world a secret from any onlookers, so he might as well go full dragon on them. Mac roared to get the little buggers’ attention and then sprayed the lot of them closest to him with a hot stream of dragon flame.

It was so damn satisfying to see those little shits melt. But the more he torched, the more appeared to take their places. This was a full on horde the likes of which he had never seen before. He was going to need backup. Except there wasn't another Dragon Warrior within a thousand miles of here.

Just as he was considering how the hell he was going to get Nataly out of here, a big-ass wolf tore through a dozen demon wyrms headed in her direction. Wyrm heads went flying right and left, and the wolf ripped them off and flung the remains before they could dissolve to oil and ash.

Okay, so they had her Uncle Jonas on their team. That was good. But not good enough. There was no way one Dragon Warrior and one Alpha Wolf could defeat this many minions of hell.

Mac wanted nothing more than to grab Nat up again and fly her away. But he couldn't do that. He wouldn't leave the wolf there alone to protect the human population who were bound to come looking at the ruckus.

Wolf, can you call to your pack to come and help us defend against the horde? Mac wasn't a hundred percent sure a wolf shifter would hear his dragon speak, but he had to try.

What he got in reply was a low growl and an ear-shattering howl to the sky.

Okay, so that was a yes.

They're already on their way, son. I don't know that they'll get here in time. We need a backup plan to keep Nataly safe. A voice with the distinct ring of an alpha poured into Mac's head.

Right, backup plan. When your pack arrives I can grab my mate and fly her out of here.

Uh, excuse me? I'm right here, you guys. Quit talking about me like I'm a defenseless little baby. Nataly's sweet and spicy voice smacked him with her irritation. She followed up her declaration by shooting a demon wyrm who'd jumped into the air, dropping it in its tracks.

Maybe they didn't need that backup as much as he thought they did. Whoo boy, his mate was fucking sexy when she was on fire and fighting. Did she know she was literally on fire at the moment?

Nataly spun in a circle, the flames rising from the ground around her and crawling across her skin until she almost looked like a bright, shining phoenix. She took shot after shot, hitting the wyrms coming at them all dead and turning them to oil and ash with her bullets imbued with the element of fire. If she was this powerful now before she even understood her ability to wield the elements, what would she be like with a little training?