He didn’t have to turn around to know his men followed. Dougal would hang back until he figured out the process, and his mate would stay behind Dougal. These weren’t conversations August had to have to count on things happening. His wolf trusted them completely.
August sniffed the air. Was that… sour lemons? No, it was just a pungent overabundance of the dragon drug coming from a hole in the ground. Well, now. Wasn’t that interesting? An underground entrance. How completely clever of the flying beasts. No one would ever accuse them of being stupid. Or at least no one who wanted to stay alive would.
Mac howled, and a dragon poked his head out of the hole in the ground before taking to the sky, his wings tucked against him so he was almost a cylinder. The purple dragon landed on the ground, and Mac shifted back into his human form.
August swallowed his temper. He’d always known this was awful, but to actually see a wolf conspiring with the dragons was an entirely different kind of despicable. He’d clearly not properly prepared himself to witness this.
He swung his head around, catching Homer’s gaze a distance away. Now might be as good a time as any to get down that hole. It wasn’t like the dragons were regularly coming up. People would see them.
Homer nodded. His friend understood and passed the signal behind them. Did he have to specify that he didn’t want his mate coming down? Nine shakes to the left would convey the message, and then it was passed on.
It was too bad, really, that wolves couldn’t speak telepathically. That would just make things so much easier.
He charged forward. In a fair fight, he’d give warning, a howl, or a growl to tell the opponent he should expect aggression. There was nothing about dealing with the dragon that was ever fair. They just had to be killed.
All of them.
Auggie couldn’t say at what point in his life he started to see red during battles and lose track of time. It had gradually taken place. This fight was no different. One minute he was outside the dragon cave, the next he was inside, staring at the eggs again. How long had this taken? What had happened exactly?
Next to him, Dougal shifted into his human form. August blinked and decided to do the same. Dougal wouldn’t be shifting if there was danger around.
“Remind me to never hold you down again, won’t you, big brother? You’re scary.” Dougal said the words with affection, yet they did nothing to get rid of Auggie’s overwhelming concern about his lack of memory from the experience.
“I think I may have to stop fighting.” There, he’d said it aloud. “Is… What happened?”
Dougal whistled through his teeth. “If you are losing time, you really do need to stop. Well, you tore and tore and tore through them. I got a few licks in, but nothing like you. The dragons are dead. Our people are not. And just like you said… more dragon eggs than anyone has ever seen are right in front of us.”
August cleared his throat. “Is my mate okay? The others?”
“You’d never have come back to your human self if she wasn’t, I suspect. At least, I wouldn’t if it were me. She’s fine. As you indicated, she stayed back. But she’s down now. In the caves, fixing up Homer, I think. Got a little singed, but he’ll be okay.” Dougal held out the egg-burning formula Caitlyn had invented several years ago. It had turned the tide of the war for the wolves.
Clarissa was good at helping people. When August had been dragon burned she’d helped him and… August’s senses went on high alert. Something was off. He whirled around. Inside, his wolf stood at attention, but his other half didn’t know what was wrong either. Just that something was.
He turned to look behind him in the caves. His mate was there. Was that it? Was something about to threaten her? No…
August jumped toward the eggs the same time a giant purple dragon appeared from beneath the eggs. She knocked some over on her way up, but that was okay. They protected their Queen but otherwise killed their own babies to make the drugs. They were cutthroat in the things they did.
The dragon only had eyes for Dougal, and his brother hadn’t seen it yet, his gaze on the burning solution he had to handle one handed.
“Dougal!” August shoved his brother to the ground, taking the hit of the dragon’s fire on his own back. His brother was shouting something, and then August was on the ground as well. Through the pain of the burn on his human back, which took most of his attention, he saw Dougal shift and take down the dragon.
It was possible to have so much pain that he went numb from it. He’d not known that before.
Homer’s face was in his line of sight, and then Clarissa. No, there could be more dragons. That wasn’t safe. Homer rolled him over. August’s ears rang. Were people speaking to him? He was lifted off the ground, and then he saw his beloved’s face again.
His mate. The gods had given her to him. She was so lovely. He hated to leave her just yet. “I thought it would hurt more.”
“What?” He could hear again. The world was loud. Everything pounded against him all the time. Not just now. “You thought what would hurt more, my love?”
“Dying.”
She sucked in her breath. Where were they going? He should ask, but it was hard to think, to keep track of what he was supposed to say next.
“You’re not dying.” She sounded sure, not afraid. “I won’t allow it.”
“If there is a next step, I’ll wait for you there. Don’t hurry to follow me.”
She shook her head. Her blue eyes were steel. “Knock it off.” Something went into his mouth—it tasted bitter—and then his love was talking to someone else. He wanted her eyes—those blue, violet eyes—on him.
His head floated. What had she put in his mouth?
“It’ll help with the pain. Just this once. It’s twice where you get into trouble. I won’t let that happen to you.”
Had he asked it aloud? Her words filtered through the haze. “Oh, the dragon drug. That’s sort of… funny.”
Maybe he wasn’t making sense. She shook her head. They were running from the caves, smoke behind them. Had they set fire to the eggs? He hoped they had.
“It’s not funny,” she finally answered him.
The world drifted away.
August sat on a log next to his father. He rubbed his eyes. This wasn’t possible. Dad had gone into decline shortly after his mother died. That had been one of the last messages he’d received from Robbie before Auggie dropped out of communication months earlier.
He hadn’t let himself think about his parents. Not seeing them before they left their human lives bothered him as little else did. They’d been good parents. Robbie and Auggie had hurt them when they’d faked their deaths in a way they’d never recovered from. Like the mate he hadn’t known he had at the time. August had really taken selfishness to a new level.
“You’re not here. You’re in decline.”
His father shrugged. “We go somewhere when we give over to our wolves. We don’t cease to be. We just move on, and eventually, the wolves do, too.”
Auggie digested this piece of information. “So is that what happened? I’ve given over to the wolf.”
Dad sighed. “I don’t actually know, son. You were hurt badly, right? You might be dead.”
Well. That wasn’t a particularly comforting thought. “I don’t want to be dead.”
“No one ever really wants to be dead,” his father shot back. “You got burned by a dragon. That usually kills people.”
Yes, that was true. “My mate said she wasn’t going to let me die.”
“Clarissa is strong. Maybe you’ll pull through this.” His dad had always been able to see both sides of every issue. Maybe he was dead, maybe he wasn’t dead… They could do this all day every day.
A new topic was needed. “How is Mom?”
“I don’t know, August. I’m just a figment of your imagination.”
He was? “What is going on here?”
“Well, your mate went ahead and gave you some of that dragon drug. It has medicinal
properties. Actually, if Caitlyn were given some interrupted time to work on it, I bet she could make it fully medicinal and take out the addictive nature that is killing so many wolves. Your mate is saving your life. In the meantime, you’re in some kind of delusional state where you aren’t conscious. I guess you wanted to see me, so your brain manifested this illusion.”
That seemed more and more likely, since his father would never have said the words ‘manifested this illusion’ in his whole life.
Well, if that was true, then August was going to say something he’d always wanted to say to him. “I always admired how you never quit, Dad. Those inventions you made, most of the time they never worked, but you tried and tried again. I admired the heck out of that. I don’t think I ever told you. And I’m sorry Robbie and I did what we did. There’s lots of reasons why, but none of them seem to matter anymore.”
When it came down to it, he’d been a lousy son. His father had been great and a wonderful example of how to love a mate. If August really did live through what happened, he was going to take a page out of his father’s book—he was going to love his family the way he’d been raised to do.
The dragons took everything from so many people. August was done letting them take from him.
8
Her mate’s eyes fluttered open and closed again as they had done for the last two days. His twin, Clarissa’s Alpha, waited in silence as he had for the last two days as well.
“He should be dead.” Tatyana never minced words. While Clarissa appreciated her honesty, after days of nothing but worry, she might appreciate some kind words spoken to make her feel better. She shook her head. Exhaustion made her loopy.
Clarissa found her voice. “I’m holding him to me. My wolf won’t let him go. I can’t explain it otherwise. It was something August said to me once. His wolf held me close. That’s why he bit me.” She rambled. “He needs to shift.”
The Alpha’s mate nodded. “He has to wake up long enough to do that. At this point, if he shifts, he might heal.”
Clarissa hated the might in that statement. “Then he has to wake up and do it. My Alpha, would you help me?”
Robert stepped forward. He’d been quiet, his silence punctuated by the waves of distress the Alpha had given off in his scent every once in a while. The Alpha losing control of what he sent out into the world spoke volumes. Did Auggie know how much his brother loved him? She was going to see to it that he understood.
They’d tried any number of things to rouse August, and none of it had worked. Not even hitting him across the face. He’d come close to waking, but then he just… wouldn’t.
“Tatyana, you’re going to shake him. It always makes him respond. While you do that, my Alpha—”
Robert interrupted her. “Given everything and that you are my Sister, it is fine for you to call me Robbie when we’re alone. Your sisters do.”
That was nice, but she didn’t care right that second. “You’re going to threaten me.”
“I’m going to what?” he shouted. “I’d never threaten you.”
“No, it’s brilliant.” Tatyana stood straighter. “What would rouse you faster than someone threatening me?”
Robert’s wolf was present in his eyes. “August will know that I’d never hurt you.”
“He’s not going to be in his right mind.” This had to work. She knew it would.
“Let’s do it,” Tatyana ended the discussion. She shook August. His poor body had been so abused. The dragon had all but destroyed his skin. He wasn’t going to live if they didn’t do something.
His eyes started to flutter, and Robert growled. She’d never heard their Alpha make that sound before. Goosebumps broke out on her skin. Even Tatyana winced.
“I told you to protect them. What part of being a healer did you miss, Clarissa? If my brother dies, you’re following him immediately. Dead.”
August roared to life, and Robert hissed out a breath. “Shift, brother. Shift now.”
In his half-awake state, he might not be listening. “Do it, August. Shift for us now, my love. Please. That’s how you’ll heal.”
He winced, but his body shifted, slowly for August, but he got there. He let out a huff before his legs gave out and he all but face planted down on the ground in his wolf form.
“I know.” She knelt down, running her hands over his soft fur. “You’re going to be okay now. You will. Your body is healing. You made it.” She could hardly catch her breath. “You did.”
August raised his wolf head and growled at his brother. She laughed as Robbie groaned. “He was pretending. No one has hurt me.”
Her mate made that huffing sound again. He pulled himself up and limped over to her before he sat down and put his head in her lap. Her wolf sighed. Yes, her wolf had held onto his wolf, hadn’t let him go, as though this time she was the one who bit down on him and said you can’t go anywhere.
Tears stung her eyes, and they flowed down her cheeks. This was relief. August would be okay. Maybe not today. Maybe it would take some time. But he would be. She would see to it.
Clarissa sat on the porch swing, her mate sipping some water next to her. He leaned on her shoulder. Every day, August got stronger. Since his ordeal, he’d been quieter and yet more affectionate, too.
“You okay?” She kissed the top of his head, and he nodded.
“Don’t worry about me, Angel Face. I’m figuring some things out. I’m here, thanks to you. Just figuring out what comes next.”
That was unexpected. “Which would be what?”
“Well,” he started to speak, and then shook his head. “Robbie’s coming. I’ll tell you both together.”
She nodded. That would work, too. Robert appeared a few seconds later. August could always scent things at least ten seconds before she could.
“Hey.” Robert rounded the corner. “Came to see how the patient is doing.”
He leaned on his knees. “The patient is feeling old. The patient is not healing as fast as he used to.”
“Well, we are older now.” Robert gave them a toothy grin before he sat down on their steps. “Be calm. You smell better. You’re getting there.”
“About that.” Her mate got to his feet. She hated that he winced as he did so. He might need to shift again. She bit down on her nail. Clarissa hadn’t given any thought to the dragon drugs in days, but now she was finding the need rode her again. She leaned back in the swing. August didn’t need to worry about her right this second. At the moment, she had to deal with this on her own. If she needed help, she’d ask.
Her mate spoke again. “For a while, even before this last bit, I haven’t had any memory of my battles as a wolf.”
She swallowed. That wasn’t good news at all. On one hand, it could simply be a case of battle fatigue. But it was sometimes also a sign that the male was getting close to decline. That couldn’t be allowed to happen.
She had just gotten him back.
He winked at her. “Not going anywhere, Angel Face. I promise. Not any time soon. It’s not decline. My wolf is as happy as we are, too.”
“Then you’re just done fighting.” Robert nodded.
“I don’t want to let this pack down. Moreover, I don’t want to let you down. You’re my brother. I love you.”
Robert’s eyebrows shot up. “Did you just say ‘I love you’?”
“I did.” August didn’t even seem embarrassed. “More than I don’t want to let the pack down, I don’t want to let you down. I want to be useful. I don’t know what I can do for you if I can’t fight. But my first priority has to be to my mate, whom I also love.”
She kicked him gently to show him she was there. He didn’t react, his attention seemingly focused on Robert. “So there is it.”
“Then it’s a good thing you have so many other skills.”
Clarissa covered her mouth with her hand to hide her grin. August cocked his head to the side. “Like what?”
“Well”—Robert rose—“we have to expand the pack.
We burned the new Queen, but it just means they’ll make another one. We have ten years. So we need this world to be full of packs again. Strong, loyal packs. To that end, I am going to expand mine into the hills. Anyone there can swear loyalty or get out.”
It was rough, but that was the world they lived in. They were werewolves. They followed Alphas. It worked better that way.
“Then we’re going to start making strides to help Alphas start forming packs. If they all need to defer to me until then, fine. So be it. We will get things back in order to find those eggs in the next ten years, and again and again. It will take organization.”
August visibly swallowed. “Do you expect me to go talk to those people?”
Robert laughed. “By the gods, no. I’m good at this. Send you out to talk to people? No. You are going to go into our new pack land, determine what those who swear loyalty need from us, and get it for them. Your mate, too. She’ll look after their health. I don’t care if you talk to them at all. Are there houses falling down? Would it be a smart idea to install sentries there? You tell me. I get it done.”
Clarissa rose. “I think he’d be really good at that.”
Robert rocked back on his feet when he stood. “You’d think I was Alpha or something. What do you say?”
“I… I like the idea very much.”
Robert nodded to him. “Sounds good, brother. Fills your need to move around, minus the fighting. I hope. Let’s see how it goes. Don’t die on me or come that close again. We shared a womb. Let’s occupy the planet together for another forty or fifty years. No more near deaths in this family.” He pointed at Clarissa, too. “That’s an order for the whole family.”
The sound of crickets drifted through the trees as Robbie left them to their evening. August sank down onto the steps and patted the one next to him, which she gladly got up and went to. “What do you think?”
“I like it if you like it, Angel Face.” He kissed her cheek. “Of course, it’ll depend on the baby.”