Hot water? A bath?
Lorelei took another step toward the female dragon, ignoring all her years of conditioning. Dragons were feared. Respected. Avoided at all costs. They certainly didn’t invite others into their home and bathe and feed them.
“The male won’t mind?”
“Col?” Naomi asked, “No, of course not. If he did, he’d be growling and snorting about how you’re not welcome here. I promise, you’re safe. But we really should get you inside.” She turned to Saul again, who had yet to move. “Are you going to do what I asked?”
Saul’s shoulders sank and he bowed at the waist. “I would, Mahadhri, I just…” He met Lorelei’s gaze. “I need to know she’s safe.”
“See.” Naomi turned back to Lorelei. “I need you inside, so Saul will do what I need him to do.”
Lorelei couldn’t speak. Couldn’t move. Saul was defying the Mahadhri. Defying a dragon’s wishes. With no fear. Respect for sure. He’d bowed. He’d laid an excuse at her feet and refused to move.
“He meant no disrespect, Mahadhri,” Lorelei said, using the female’s title.
“Call me Naomi, and I know that. Men who see glowing women have a hard time focusing on anything else.” She chuckled and held out her hand for Lorelei to take.
It would be so easy to accept the help. To go inside and bathe and eat and let them care for her. But what would it cost her? What would it cost them to go against Rivian? To make him their enemy?
“He will come. He is horrible and cunning and smart and cruel.”
Naomi nodded. “We are two dragons, two bears, multiple wolves, lions, and a tiger. We got this sweetie. He won’t know what hit him.”
6
Saul
He lingered a few moments longer.
Naomi led his shuarra into her cabin. The door closed and he was still standing in the yard watching. He didn’t like leaving her, but they needed the whole tribe.
Lorelei hadn’t known how many lions were with Rivian. But he knew there were at least two groups. There could be more. If there was a whole pride…it would be a blood bath. Just like it had been with the wolf pack and Tara.
The door opened again and Col’s voice bellowed. “Now, Saul. Get the others and get back here. She will be safe, I give you my word.”
Saul nodded, annoyance at his behavior swirling through his conscience. He was behaving like a besotted youngling. Lorelei was his fated match, but he hadn’t earned her yet. And something was wrong with her mind. Something that made his beast’s instinct cringe with fear. They’d hurt her so deeply.
He turned and ran up the snow-covered road toward Penny and Kann’s cabin, shifting seamlessly into his beast and covering the distance in a few minutes. The second his feet touched the steps of the cabin, he shifted back. Pounding with his hand against the door.
“Kann, Penny! Kann, Penny!”
Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.
He kept pounding until the door opened, halting his fist in mid-air to avoid hitting Kann in the face.
“What’s going on? What’s wrong?”
“I need to get everyone to the Vraka’s cabin. There are lions. Ka’lagh lions,” he said, knowing Kann would instantly recognize the threat.
Kann’s eyes narrowed and flashed gold. He turned away and shouted into the house. “Penny. Babies.” He turned back to Saul. “Go to Owen and Ava’s cabin. We are on our way.”
“I am terrible with the phone communicating,” Saul said, wishing he’d paid more attention during Naomi’s demonstrations. The device beeped in his pocket. Repeatedly. He pulled it out and looked at the screen. Numerous messages flipped back and forth.
Penny ran forward, thrusting two of their infant children into Kann’s arms. “I already sent out messages to everyone. The girls in town are rounding up everyone not out here already. They are meeting us at Naomi’s.” She paused and stared straight at Saul. “Who the fuck are the Ka’lagh lions?”
“Penny,” Kann said, his voice soft.
“No, no, no. No shuarra sugar-coating shit. Your heart nearly leapt out of your chest when he said that name. I could see it on your face.”
“They killed my mate, back on Reylea.”
Her eyes glassed over with sympathetic pain. Penny was tough as nails, but she had the biggest heart. “Oh, Saul. I had no idea. You never once mentioned them. I’m so sorry.”
He shook his head. “It was many years ago. But, this pride is dangerous and powerful and ruthless. We have no idea how many are here, but I took a woman from them yesterday. A prisoner. She was glowing. I—”
Penny reached out a hand and took his, squeezing it. “We’re going to protect her. Come get my gun bag.”
Saul followed them both into the cabin. Penny wasn’t a lion, but she was a weapons expert and no-one in the tribe without fangs and claws was more deadly. She’d taught everyone excellent gun safety and had them on a regular rotation for target practice. No one in their tribe was a bad shot, but no one was better than Penny either.
“Are they armed? Could you tell?” She handed him a heavy black canvas bag and began unloading a cabinet into it.
He nodded. “Yes, rifles.”
She grunted and grabbed a few more weapons from the bottom of the cabinet and tossed them into the bag. She yanked up her skirt and strapped on a thigh-belt filled with throwing knives—or as Kann liked to call them, penny-claws.
When the bag was so full it was obvious nothing else was going to fit, she zipped it up. “I’m going upstairs to grab Angela and Erik. Be right back.”
Kann cooed at the two other tightly wrapped infants in his arms.
Saul felt a hollow pain in his chest stab at his heart for the child he’d never met and lost the same fateful day his mate had been killed. He loved having the babies in the tribe. He loved helping to care for them. Loved holding them.
But he would’ve been lying if he hadn’t felt pain along with his joy. He’d lost his shuarra. Being given the opportunity to bond with another female had never crossed his mind as an option. And now…his heart struggled even as it rejoiced.
Penny returned with two more bundled babies. “Let’s go. Saul, will you carry the bag back to Naomi’s? Tara already got my message, she and Owen are meeting us there.”
He snorted out a soft huff. Stupid phone message things. He needed to practice more, but it was embarrassing to admit he didn’t understand the technology. Everyone else seemed to have taken to it rather easily.
“Saul?” Kann asked, prodding gently.
“Yes, sorry. Of course. I was just—”
“Distracted. It’s okay. I’ve seen the effects of men seeing glowing women.”
They hurried out of the house and down the road. The short walk in the snow took only a few minutes before they were stomping at Col and Naomi’s door, knocking snow from their boots before pushing it open.
“Come on in,” Col said, his voice bellowing through the cabin.
“How did you know it was us?” Penny asked, her tone more amused than questioning.
“I could hear the babies outside.” Col appeared around the corner and walked into the massive entry. Big coats hung along the wall on a dozen hooks. Rubber-lined trays to catch the water from the snow boots lined floor beneath them.