The Protector (Fire's Edge #4) - Abigail Owen Page 0,62

arms. With a deep breath, she forced herself to walk ahead of him through the door into the training center and outside.

Calm down. Calm the fuck down. He was right that she needed to. But how the hell was she supposed to do that when her boys had been threatened and she was supposed to be mated to that slimeball who wanted to “tame her fiery spirit?” She wanted to scream her horror to the world, but that wouldn’t do her any good, either.

The cool air of night did nothing to help her reach that calm. As soon as she unleashed her dragon form, she surged toward where Finn stood, already shifted, at the back side of the training building. Already he had the oil barrels they trained with burning, lighting up the surrounding field and forest with the blue glow of his dragon fire.

“What do we do—”

“Not yet,” Finn warned her.

More of that calm bullshit. Lyndi swallowed down the rest of the words, searing her throat along with sour bile that had been trying to come up since Tineen decided to focus on claiming her and disbanding her family.

Once every single enforcer was gathered before him, taking up a crap ton of space, Finn finally spoke. “We’re going to run a standard formation, working on hiding our approach at night. Mike, I want you to fuck it up every time.”

Mike’s hot pink coloring was still glaring, even at night, and the trip to Shula’s people said he really did need the practice. But that’s not what this was about, and they all knew it.

“I’ll have to get in your face in case that fucker is watching. It’s not real. Got it?”

Mike dipped his head. “Got it, boss.”

And that’s what they did.

While Lyndi practically vibrated with impatience, Levi hovered close, which weeks ago would have only added to her jangling nerves. For once, however, he didn’t talk, give her orders, or pester her. He just…was there. The only way she managed to keep going without losing her shit. Even in dragon form, her heart was clenching so hard, pain sliced through her chest in tune to the rapid beat.

After the third time through the drill, and Finn deliberately got in Mike’s face, letting blue flames curl out of his mouth in a subtle display of anger, they ran it again. Only this time, they started talking.

“Right. Talk.” Finn’s voice broke her concentration as Lyndi dove steadily toward the flaming barrels while keeping her belly to where he stood on the ground, using the camouflaging of the reflective scales underneath.

“We’re not giving them Lyndi or our boys,” Levi said.

Our boys.

“Damn straight,” came Finn’s immediate response. “Ideas. Now.”

A small corner of the panic receded in the warmth and light of the knowledge that she and her kids weren’t alone. The team had come a long way over the years. At first, they hadn’t wanted her to risk her life taking in orphaned dragons. Then they’d been wary of getting involved with the boys. Now, they were family. Dragon shifters didn’t adapt to change easily.

I did that. Any swell of pride she might have had died a quick death under the piles of worry heaping over her, burying her alive.

“Finn…I think I might have something,” Levi said slowly.

She wanted to whip around to see him, where he trailed behind her in the drill, but she couldn’t. Instead, she swooped over the barrels, drawing the fire into herself through her scales as she’d been trained. A trick only enforcers learned to master. A twinge of searing pain near her tail told her that her distraction was making this a dangerous exercise to keep up.

“Spit it out,” Finn said, when Levi paused.

“Lyndi takes the boys up Alaska way to cross the land bridge.”

Lyndi did whip around at that, bobbling in the air, and nearly took out the top of a pine tree, having to right herself and gain more altitude with several strokes of her wings, smoke curling out of her mouth with her fury. He was lucky she didn’t blast him with fire. “No. We’re not taking them to the clans—”

“Dammit Lyndi, as if I would.”

She almost flinched at the tone he used. One he never used with her. Guilt, sharp and ugly, immediately pierced through her panic. Of course he wouldn’t. Levi loved those boys, too, though he might not word it that way.

Levi dropped down, allowing her to see the glitter of his scales as he came to her level and faced