Devoted to the Dragon (The Last Shifters #1)

20. Randi

Chapter 20

Randi

T he pack alphas and councilmen continue to argue amongst themselves around the crowded chamber. It’s been hours since the meeting was called to session, and Gunnar has taken to pacing along the wall.

The stories from the territories are bleak, tales of spreading violence and wolves hunted by rogue packs. The packs have lost the numbers to run their human-facing timber business, and production has almost stopped. No one has a solution, and everyone has problems.

I wasn’t holding out for a great plan, but I expected at least something from the king to get real solutions started. The longer he goes on making excuses, the more he pisses me off.

“That brings us to the problem of mating and the ferals,” the king says, hands steepled.

All eyes turn to me.

The king gives me a cold look. “You seem to be quiet, dragoness. Have you experienced these problems in your Moon Lake Valley?”

He’s baiting me, but I refuse to be ruffled.

I lift my chin, surveying the room. “We have ferals and address them directly, but we have found that most wolves settle once they are brought through a successful rut.”

Murmurs carry through the chamber, curious glances and angry glares thrown my way.

That was the opening the king was waiting for. “And do you plan to share how you have handled this so successfully at Frenzy? Or is your plan to keep the answers for yourself while we suffer?”

I stare him down, giving him a grin that shows I know what he’s trying to accomplish and it won’t work. “Most of the men in this room have attended Frenzy. As you know from experience, Alpha, we use trained humans to attend wolves’ ruts. What exactly are you asking of me? I haven’t seen anything of a plan from you, and yet you want me to, what?

“Send you volunteer rut companions when you can’t guarantee their safety? Give you the spells we use to call on the rut? Who of you can cast them? We’ve been over this many times. Exactly what is your plan? To have me solve the problem for you?”

The wolves around the large circular table bristle, and the crowd behind them stirs.

Fennik, seated across from me, shakes his head. “Couldn’t resist,” he mouths.

I did promise him I would try for composed today, but at this point, we’re lucky I’m not fuming steam.

The king stands, addressing the whole room, but his eyes are on me. “Yes, that is exactly what we’re asking. We will reinstate the Thunder and decree that all wolves must partake to remain in a territory. The Council would like access to your witch, rut companions, and increased guard training. We plan to send wolves who have successfully trained with you to each territory.”

“And whose magic will you use to create the Thunder? Vandera is one witch. She can’t possibly attend them all.”

The door to the chamber opens, and the raven-haired woman from yesterday walks into the room. She is dressed in a slim tuxedo, shadows undulating around her as she moves.

Gasps ring out, making it clear that many were unaware of the king’s plan.

The serpents are off-limits. Dead to us. The enemy of the great shifters. They brought the first extinction with their treachery. The serpents stole our hearts—the blood from them full of potent magic—and used them to aid the crusading knights in creating their “holy” weapons meant to kill other shifters. Ever since, they have been shunned, feeding off humans and their own greed.

I should have never come here. I was arrogant and naive. Fennik was right.The king has no answers. He has only backward deals and more loss for the wolves.

“That’s where we come in,” the woman says confidently. “We will provide people to be trained as rut companions. We simply need you to tell us the spell and train those we send to you.” The snake joins the king.

Nothing matters now except returning to my territory. I rise, the room in chaos.

The woman calls out above the rising clamor, “Dragoness, we need your help. If your witch could only help us finalize the spell.”

Steam billowing, nails digging into the table, I answer. “I’ll never work with the serpents. If this is the Council’s plan, I want no part. Be advised that Moon Lake Valley’s borders will close and your training wolves will be sent home. I wish you the best of luck, alphas.”

I move toward the entrance, Gunnar on my tail.

“I thought you might say that. But in good faith, we have brought you a demonstration,” the woman says, her icy voice sending a shiver down my spine.

The Alpha King calls, “You will stay and listen, Randi. We need them now, whether we like it or not. I’m not your enemy, and neither are they. You’re holding a grudge for dead shifters, and we need solutions for the living.”

I swallow my fire, but my eyes sting, the heat rising. “That snake who betrayed us all by convincing a shifter that he was her mate so he could spy for invaders? He was my sister’s lover.” All the fire I’m holding in makes my words burn on their way out. “I will never trust them.”

The guards at the door move to block my way, dart guns raised.

I grab the barrel of one gun, the metal sizzling and black globs dripping onto the floor as it melts. “Move, wolves.”

Behind me, Gunnar’s tail swishes, knocking my head forward. From my peripheral vision, I see the dart fly past. I don’t have time to thank him before another is shot from somewhere on the other side of the room. Fennik’s grey-and-white wolf jumps in to protect my side.The room devolves into anarchy as my loyal wolf falls to the floor.

“Grab him,” I shout to Gunnar. I use my fire on the door, clearing a path.

More wolves are waiting in the hallway as though they expected this.I unleash my dragon without mercy, desperate to get my mates out of here.

One snapped neck. Another. I use my fire. My claws.

Wolves fall. Two. Five. A dozen.

So much needlessly wasted life.

Finally, we make it to the entrance. Behind me, Gunnar carries Fennik while he fends off those who try to follow from the chamber.

Just as we clear the entrance, a serpent steps out of the shadows. Like the woman earlier, he is sharp featured, raven haired, and covered in slithering smoke that gives way to wispy-looking serpents’ heads.

“Aren’t you magnificent?” he hums, a thick cloud of pink-and-black breath curling from his mouth.

I cover my nose, knocking into him, but it’s too late.

I run anyway, Gunnar shouting as he follows, “What the fuck was that?”

“Serpent. Like the other. His breath contains magic. It lowers inhibitions and dulls reflexes. We don’t have time for plan A. We need to get to the clearing.”

Gunnar pulls ahead, pointing to the right. “Come on. It’s this way.”

The sight of Fennik being carried in Gunnar’s arms almost trips me, but I force myself to keep moving toward the training grounds we scoped out as my landing spot.

Wolves spill out from the Council buildings, shouts and orders being called out behind us. We don’t stop running.

The training grounds are barely large enough, but the second I see them, I shift anyway, my dragon snapping her wings. Wolves close in. I scoop up my mates, clutching them in my front claws, and launch into flight.

A whizzing zing passes, and I let loose my fire, angry all over again that they’re shooting me. I spin and weave, ducking shots as I fly. Something stings my right wing and lodges into my side. I turn my head and see a dart glowing a strange purple.

We fall.My dragon fights to keep hold of her wings. The drowsiness is overwhelming, but my dragon shouts in my mind.

Fight. Fight…

The last of her thoughts are slurred. The ice traveling in my veins blots her out, and before we can make it safely to the forest floor, she is quiet inside me.I lose hold of Gunnar and Fennik as we fall. A branch stabs me, something blunt knocks my head, then blackness.

I come to alone, crushed in a tangle of fallen trees. My eyes want to close, but I force myself to focus enough to dig myself out of the rubble left by my crash. I’m dizzy, and my body hurts, my side throbbing. The sun has already set, making the forest dark, and I need to find my wolves.

The call on my dragon goes unanswered. She is so deeply asleep that it feels almost as if she has disappeared. Whatever the Council hit me with was powerful. The hole where my dragon should be is so vast I think I’ll split open.

But I can’t focus on that yet.

A search of the crash site doesn’t lead me to my wolves. I survey the area, sniffing to help me. It isn’t my dragon’s nose, and I huff at my stupidity. My brain still can’t comprehend my dragon’s absence, and it takes me longer than it should to orient myself with the night sky, but then I’m racing toward our checkpoint.

The Council is in the forest, their howls filling the night air. My feet are getting torn up without my dragon’s skin, but I keep weaving through the ferns and underbrush, searching for signs of Fennik and Gunnar.The forest grows darker, but I should be nearing the river, which will take me to the cave. I scan the trees as I go, listening for water.

A clamp sounds, the snap of a trap set. My body is suspended in midair, and the world tips over.