Chapter 23
RONYN
As we circle the territory Hunter indicated, a strong stench hits me. The air carries the smell of wet fur, rot, old blood, and wolf stink, mixed with neglect, disease, and the careless waste of those who don’t value what they possess.
The territory below is a mass of tangled underbrush.
Animal carcasses lie bloated and half-consumed, rusted-out cars form crude borders, their frames stripped bare and half-swallowed by moss.
A mound of bones sits at the center of a clearing, like a crude totem.
No one tends to this place, or rules it with strength or care, and that tells me everything I need to know about the shifters we’re about to face.
Kelan dips low, signaling the descent. Darial follows. I bank sharply, letting the wind catch my wings before folding them in and diving hard.
We land in a wide clearing surrounded by dying pines and broken fencing. The ground is patchy, churned by countless paws and stained with waste. The odor intensifies here. The wolves show no regard for order, marking their own borders and leaving refuse near their den.
Typical of the kind of male who thinks strength and destruction go hand in hand.
I shift with a crack of bones and burst of heat, landing on my feet with a startled Robert, beside Kelan who pulls the cloth back around his waist. Darial touches down lightly a breath later, careful of Aura as he releases her, and an equally startled Evan.
Hunter staggers, palms braced on his knees as he exhales hard.
Evan looks like he might vomit. Robert sinks into a crouch, rubbing the back of his neck like the flight scrambled his senses.
It seems bear shifters need time to adjust to flying.
I smirk. “Dragons not what you expected?” I roll my shoulders to loosen the tension. “Or is your stomach that delicate?”
Hunter grunts. “You move fast.”
Darial steps forward, more diplomatic than I have the patience for. “Better than slow, considering what’s at stake.”
I glance at Aura. She stands among us, wrapped in furs yet visibly cold. Her lips are blue, her hair whipped by the wind, contrasting with the faintly glowing runes on her skin. She is silent now, which is more troubling than tears.
It is the silence of someone preparing for the worst, of a mother facing her greatest fear.
I dislike the fear etched on her face and the tension in her posture. I want her to laugh again, and return to the woman she was, vibrant and full of life. The silent, motionless figure before me isn't the Aura I have come to know.
Someone will be held accountable for causing her pain.
Kelan steps beside her and lifts his chin. “Where?” he asks the bears.
Hunter gestures north. “They’ve built some kind of compound. Walls from stripped trees. Pitched tents inside. We’ve seen patrols running the perimeter.”
“Any communication from the wolves who were guarding the child?” I ask.
Robert shakes his head. “There’s been no word since Nixon’s call.”
Darial’s jaw clenches. “Then we go in.”
If we are careless, we risk alerting them. Nothing prevents them from harming Nixon’s pack. They aren't strategic; they are vengeful, controlling, and desperate for power.
Robert and Evan agree with their alpha, nodding solemnly.
I move toward the tree line. “Our focus is retrieval and justice.”
Darial catches my arm. “Ronyn.”
“What?” I growl.
His voice is low. “We have to be smart.”
I glance back at Aura. She hasn’t moved.
She’s looking at the trees like her daughter might step out of them at any second, clutched in the arms of a feral wolf, determined to tear out her throat.
“Fine. We plan. But we move soon.”
The bear shifters give us the lay of the land with quick, clipped gestures, but I’m distracted by the stench around me, and Aura’s desperate presence.
“They’ll have patrols,” Hunter mutters. “They’re disorganized, but aggressive.
Anyone who comes within twenty feet of their perimeter, they attack first, ask questions later.
” He crouches low beside a crooked stump, his fingers carving lines into the mud, sketching a rough outline of the camp.
He points at intervals around the perimeter. “Here. Here. Here.”
“We go in at three points. Dragon and bear. The first go in human form, ready to negotiate.”
Kelan shakes his head. “We go in raging with teeth and fire.”
Hunter holds up his hands. “I appreciate your passion, but I know these festering rats. They’ll kill the child without a second thought.”
“No,” Aura gasps, pressing her hand to her lips and glancing around, concerned she may have revealed our presence. We are far enough from their perimeter to remain undetected, but her distress is evident. I recall what she endured here; the scars healed by her magic and those beyond its reach.
Perhaps we should have taken her to safety, though I know she would never have agreed. This is her battle more than ours.
“The priority is to get the child out,” I say, my eyes on Aura. Her shoulders relax a little.
“What about Nixon and his family? They’re good people. We won’t leave until they’re freed.”
“We won’t leave until every threat in this territory is eliminated,” Kelan says. “If we can free your friends, we will.”
“Let us worry about them, then,” Hunter says, eyes wary again. “We will work to free those who are captive.”
Kelan nods.
“And Aura?” I ask because no one else has.
All heads turn toward her.
She rises from the fallen log beneath a twisted tree, gazing at the pale sky. Her arms are wrapped tightly around her waist, her fingers twitching as if she is holding herself together by will alone. Her silence is overwhelming.
“We protect her,” Kelan says flatly.
“She’s coming into battle with us?” Robert asks.
“Leaving her here alone is too risky.”
Aura nods at Kelan’s statement, her relief evident.
She remains with us. We promised to protect her from these creatures, and we will honor that commitment.
“We should release her magic,” Darial says, without thinking.
In our minds, Kelan’s dragon roars; she doesn’t know how to use it. It would be more dangerous for her to free it.
And if we don’t release it, we leave her without the means to protect herself, Darial cautions.
We are her means of protection, Kelan barks. Or have you forgotten you're her dragon mate?
I will keep her close, I say, torn between their views.
No, Kelan argues. She stays with me.
He is my alpha. His word is law.
“We should go now,” I say out loud so the bears and Aura can hear. “Most will be sleeping. We may have the element of surprise on our side.”
Hunter nods.
Robert and Evan shift into their bear forms, startling Aura, who moves closer to me. I embrace her and whisper softly, “It’s going to be okay.”
“Is it?” she asks, voice flat and face impassive.
“It is.”
We will win this battle because we are dragons. No wolf or bear has a chance against our might and power.