Chapter 24
Jade
Guardians of Glitter Bomb Territory
As soon as the black pickup truck pulled up, I knew they were gonna be trouble.
Their plates were from outside of the territory and they didn’t have any kids in the truck with them.
Almost everyone who traveled from out of town to Flight School came with their kids to show support in the face of so much online chaos and so many threats.
I smelled the alpha bears before the bell above the door even chimed.
Zevna and I shared a look. She pushed a button under the front desk and started ushering kids into the back.
Most of their parents were here too but glancing around I didn’t see anyone who was a guard or protector.
Sure, Amorti was up on the roof with another guard whose name I could never remember.
I watched them round the corner and head down the alley.
Nope. They weren’t getting in that way it was closer to where the kids were than the front door.
It was their way out in a pinch. I yanked on my mating link with Beryl and then set off the general alarm for the pride.
I was about to do something so fucking stupid, but I had it up to my ears with people like this pushing me around and trying to take a safe place away from flying kids.
I brought my wings out as I stepped out of the front door and locked it behind me before following them around the corner.
The biggest bear shifter was yanking on the door with one hand, a bat hanging from his other.
He’d done that thing where he put a sock on one end to try to keep his grip on it.
The bat was made of wood, though. So, yeah I’d need my fire.
None of them noticed me watching them. I should’ve known that they were too cocky.
I knew the moment something slammed into my wing, hard and cracking.
I fell, rolled over and kicked out with both feet just like Canton taught us all when we were kids.
The soles of my shoes connected with my attacker’s shins.
He was a bear too, big and tall and smelling like he’d rolled in a pile of dead fish before coming here.
I kicked again when he grunted but then the other bears were there.
I breathed fire, hot and steady, despite my shaking hands.
I was a pregnant omega surrounded by four bear alphas.
Help had to get here soon. The one with the socked bat swung it at me and I rolled, but the bat never made contact.
He roared as I rolled all the way against the walls, scratching someone’s leg as I did.
Beryl’s scent was close. I looked up but the man who wrenched the arm and the bat away from the bear wasn’t my mate.
A geyser of blood spewed from the bear’s shoulder, but he still swung at the dragon with the other hand.
The newcomer looked sort of like him and smelled even more closely related.
Beryl didn’t have any brothers. One of the other bears charged at me in the chaos but was cut off by another alpha dragon as I forced myself upright.
My wing and my shoulder ached like something had cracked or splintered.
I breathed slowly trying to ignore the pain.
I could have it all set right later as long as I stayed alive now.
The alpha dragon grabbed the bear’s head and twisted.
The bear swung but I couldn’t watch because another bear charged me and my back was against the wall.
So I went down and down and down some more until I realized another geyser of blood sprayed across the alley from the bear fighting the second dragon losing his head.
Was he trained by Star? Then I realized I was no longer in control of my actions.
My lion had forced his way out. He was one wing down but he didn’t need wings to rip into someone.
The bear shifter charged again, starting to shift, but I was already down low.
I nearly tumbled over inside my lion’s inner sanctum as he pounced into the bear, hitting him before he fully shifted and outweighed us.
Blood and bone filled my senses. My lion ripped into the bear’s stomach, pulling out organs and flesh and going back for more as the bear tried and failed to punch at his head.
Then someone pulled him away from me and tore him in half where I had started the rip in his middle.
I roared, ready to fight someone else, but it was Beryl standing in front of me.
How had he gotten here? His thoughts came in quick images over our mating link.
He left the Wing Mini on the side of the road and flew here.
Then the alleyway was full of people. Too many people. I roared and tried to squeeze past legs but couldn’t. For a moment, I thought I was having a panic attack. Then the world spun and I lost track of what was going on as blackness closed around the edges of my vision.