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JADE
Jade watched as the man she had desired, resented, and maybe even come to love disappeared into a cloud of bright blue scales that shot upward and expanded until it was impossibly large, with huge wings flapping against the gray sky.
The scope of it was almost impossible to comprehend. Each shimmering scale was larger than her hand, and there were thousands of them.
The wolves below were still staring at the place where the man had been, clearly not comprehending the trouble they were in. One of them threw itself against the dragon’s claws, snarling and biting, and the others followed.
But they quickly found that those shining claws and scales were impervious to their teeth. Whimpers and whines filled the air, yet still they came, as if their hunger was too great for them to stop.
The dragon roared and swung his mighty tail, sweeping the bulk of the pack to the side like crumbs.
They scrambled away, still moaning and snarling to themselves. Even the ones that hadn’t been caught by the tail suddenly seemed to have the good sense to know that it was time to retreat.
The dragon let its head fall back and roared with such abandon that Jade was almost afraid it had gone wild with fury and would attack anything left in its path.
But when the thunderous sound ceased, it glanced down and met her eyes.
Rafe…
His green eyes twinkled like emeralds, and she recognized him at once. She would have known him anywhere.
The roar was a celebration. He had saved his family.
Instinctively, she lifted her hand to him, though of course there was no hope of her touching a creature that towered so tall.
He lowered his head slowly, until the tip of his nose was an inch from her hand, and waited.
His breath was enough to whip her cloak behind her and lift Gus’s fluffy curls.
But the baby only laughed with delight and reached out, wiggling his fingers for his Daddy.
Jade leaned forward and they stroked the smooth, hard snout together.
A thrill went through her, and she knew to her soul that this was right. Whatever had come before meant nothing.
Her past was nothing more than a cowardly wolf facing off against a mighty dragon. She could send it running if she wanted to.
And she wanted to. More than anything.
The sound of someone moaning distracted her, and she removed her hand from the dragon’s nose to find that Tally was on the ground, the nanny-bot scanning him with her finger.
“This biological being is losing plasma quickly,” Nanee-12 said briskly. “Pressure must be applied to the wound.”
Tally’s skin had gone waxy, and the puddle of blood beside his right arm was enough that even the parched tundra couldn’t drink it down fast enough.
“Take the baby,” she told the bot, handing him off.
She looked around, but there was nothing to use. Her fur cloak wouldn’t bind anything tightly, and her shirt would take too long to get off.
Without another thought, she ripped the gloves from her arms and began using one of them to form a compress on Tally’s wound.
“Is this tight enough?” she asked the nanny-bot, hoping it could assess with the baby still in arms.
“More pressure is needed,” the bot said.
Tally moaned as Jade tied the second glove around the first, and then the pulse of blood leaving the wound slowed to a dribble and then almost nothing.
“Can you hear me?” Jade asked Tally, sliding her hand over his forehead to move his hair out of his eyes.
