“Everyone inside. Let’s see what these boys have to say before we make them into rugs.” Kellen’s lips went up into a smile.
“Oh, that’s funny,” Abyle said. “I always fancied a wolf skin for my wall, but I don’t like fleas.” Two could play that game. If the wolf wanted to be funny, let the fun begin.
The wolves behind Kellen slowly moved backward as their alpha retracted his claws. Abyle waited for Atika to follow suit then he did as well, iron claws retracting. The air, which had become thick with the impending brawl, eased.
“Alright, since y’all have finished with the pissing contest, you coming inside for a drink or what?” a pretty red-haired female asked from the doorway.
Kellen lifted his eyes to the sky. “Didn’t I tell you to head to the safe room, Lake?”
The woman named Lake lifted her shoulders in a shrug. “I did. Head there, I mean, and then my wolf said, ‘Not today, sister.’ So, I came back in here and waited for y’all to whip your dicks out, or whatever you were gonna do. Turo had my back.” She pointed over her shoulder.
“I had her and Jozyln covered. If shit went south, I’d have made sure they were safe.” The male who must be Turo held a gun that would make a sizeable hole in even their bear hide. Sheot, they would need to watch their backs and fronts around that one.
“I need a fucking drink. Come on in. Nobody will fuck with you.” Kellen pinned the crowd with a warning glare, daring any of them to say a word otherwise.
Abyle recognized an alpha order, not that it affected him since Kellen wasn’t his alpha, but he could see the wolves, and even the little female bear, submitting to the male. All except the one who had stood behind Kellen. Abyle made a mental note to watch his back around the male named Xan. If he was strong enough and he wasn’t governed by an alpha order, then he could be a challenge.
Both he and Atika waited until the pack filed in, leaving only Kellen holding the door. “After you,” he said to Kellen.
Kellen’s slight twitch of his lips could’ve been a smile. “As long as you don’t start any trouble, there won’t be any inside my club.”
It was a promise and a warning. One Abyle took as an oath. “We only came to find our mate.”
Kellen snorted what Abyle thought sounded like a curse, but he let it slide seeing as he was in the other male’s territory searching for Lula and all.
“Bears in wolves territory trying to find their lost mate. Does she have blonde hair and like honey?”
The question came from the male who hadn’t feared the alpha. Abyle eyed the other male up and down, thinking of all the ways he could and would kill him, slowly. “She will like only our honey.” Sheot, had his voice came out more rumbling growl than human?
“Boys, calm the fuck down or you will all be wearing a bow on your head.”
A female with blonde-and-pink hair came forward, passing a little baby with...a bow as big as her head, to Xan.
The big bad wolf smiled down at the child. “You are never going to date, and when you do, it will be to a nice wolf who is scared of Uncle Xan. Ain’t that right?”
“Sure, she’s gonna be just like her mama.”
“Do not even say that shit. Look what you did.” Xan lifted his chin toward a male standing off to the side appearing as though he would take on the entire world for the little girl and his female.
“In that we agree, Xan. My daughter is never mating.”
“Rowan Shade, you and my brother are not going to do this to our daughter.”
Abyle felt as though his head was bouncing back and forth in a tennis match. “Wolves,” he roared.
When all eyes turned toward him, he stood straighter. “Shut up and tell me where our female is. She’s about this tall.” He put his right hand to his chest, then moved it down a little. She was a tiny little thing. “She’s the most gorgeous creature to ever walk the Earth, although from what we’ve been informed by our brother, who we are not talking to at this moment, she’s not actually from Earth.”
Atika bumped his shoulder. “What he’s trying to say is she’s beyond anything you can imagine, with pink hair, and smells like cotton candy. My mouth waters just thinking of her.”
He bumped his brother back when he realized he was actually licking his lips in a room full of wolves. “Calm the fuck down. You don’t need to have a hard-on in front of all these people.”
As the words left his mouth, several things became apparent. One, the wolves had gone silent. Two, the females had all been moved to the back of the room with their babies. Three, the males all appeared to be preparing for a battle.
If they thought to keep Lula from them, they had a hard truth coming for them. Bring it, motherfuckers.
LULA MATERIALIZED OUTSIDE the Dragon Realm. Her heart was heavy after seeing all her friends happy and bringing new life into the world, something she didn’t think she’d ever get to do. “A dragon mating two bears?” she whispered. There would be no babies for her. She didn’t think a dragon female could...do that, not with any other species than her own.
Through the Mist that separated the Fey Realm from the one where her mother’s people lived, she could barely make out the towering mountains. She had always wondered how her life would’ve been had she been born on the other side of the Mist. Would she have already been mated to a dragon, with little dragonlings of her own?
She shook her head, feeling as if she betrayed her mother and all she’d sacrificed for her. Through the Mist, her own image reflected back at her. The sight of her long pink hair mocking in its existence. Sure, she could color it like humans did, but it would immediately revert to the natural shade of cotton-candy pink. Whatever in her DNA caused her and her mother’s scales to be pink, not the royal color of their house, made them outcasts. Her mother could’ve stayed in the Dragon Realm, could’ve mated with one of the lesser houses, but she’d fallen for a prince. They’d mated and she’d gotten pregnant with Lula. If only Lula would’ve favored his house, not come out even lighter on the pink scale then Belle, she could’ve finished the mating. She could’ve become queen and been with the man, the dragon she loved. Instead, she ran and hid for thousands of years, keeping Lula and her existence hidden and safe.
“And look at me. I’m risking it all because I’m a little crybaby who wishes for things she shouldn’t.” She swiped away a tear. Through the Mist she saw a black dragon, or at least he appeared black in the distance, swooping over the tallest mountain.
In her mother’s journal, she’d described her one-and-only love and how his scales had made him unique. Belle had said he’d had gleaming black scales with iridescent purple and blue hues throughout his many layers. She could picture the big dragon in the distance having the same appearance. With a huff she turned her back on the Mist, letting her own dragon take over, the change from human to dragon instant. Although she felt a pang at the loss of parts of herself, the small slivers she’d gifted to others, she didn’t allow it to slow her down as she took to the sky, heading back to the Fey Realm. She released a blast of fire, feeling free to do so there without worry of burning the world to a crisp. No here, in the In-Between, she was safe to breathe her dragon fire.