grip on her control slipped, but she didn’t care. She and her dragon were of the same mind.
No one fucked with her family.
Chapter Nineteen
Levi blasted a stream of flame at Tineen and the three other fuckers dive-bombing him. They’d left Mike, Attor, and Coahoma’s unconscious bodies, already shifted back to human and consequently more vulnerable, in a flat clearing that allowed him no defensible position. William hadn’t got to him yet, either, which meant he was on his own.
Bring it, assholes.
At a crash of sound, Levi whipped his gaze around to zero in on Marin’s white form, star bright against the dark of the sky, wrestling with another darker-colored dragon as they plummeted toward the earth.
“Tail.” Levi shot the thought at him, having to hold his own dragon back from going after them.
Then he had to pull his focus back to his own precarious position as Tineen swooped over him. “She’ll be mine, or she’ll die. Doesn’t matter to me which.” The black dragon snarled the words as he flashed past then turned for another run.
Blasting another spout of fire into the sky, Levi cut himself off as a flash of motion just above the dragon caught his attention.
Not possible.
“Lyndi?”
No answer came back, but a sudden, sharp flare of pain, like fire and ice at the same time, struck at the base of his neck, followed by the snap of something within his mind, and suddenly she was there. With him, part of him, and yet whole herself. Only her dragon was more in charge at the moment. Which should have scared the shit out of him. Feral dragons felt like this. Except, miraculously, Lyndi was there with her, as though both human and creature side had blended.
A heartbeat later, she came down on top of Tineen. The guy had paused to jerk around and look in the same direction Levi had been staring. But too late.
She tackled the black dragon, their tangled forms rolling over and over in a mass of limbs. The Alaz leader managed to get his feet between them and threw Lyndi off as their momentum slowed.
“We’ve got these guys.” William’s voice broke through.
A glance to the sky showed Marin, who’d somehow managed to get away from the Alaz enforcer he’d been wrestling with. Maybe his size had helped. Beside him, William’s maroon scales were unmistakable.
“I will never be yours,” Lyndi snarled at Tineen and a challenge blast sounded.
Levi whipped back around as his mate charged Tineen, head down like a bull. She was going to snap her neck if she wasn’t careful. Levi took to the air, leaving his unconscious men, still unstirring and unprotected, behind.
“Get to your brothers.” He’d have to trust that William and Marin would get to them in time.
The Alaz leader did an impressive flipping maneuver, and Lyndi barreled past underneath him. Before the beast could turn on her, Levi landed beside her. Her dragon made a sound almost like a purr of recognition. Up close to her like this he couldn’t miss the way her dark red scales were now edged in a coppery gold. As though she’d been gilded by him.
If he wasn’t facing off against men determined to kill them, he’d have paused to admire the sight. Because he’d never seen anything like it, like her, in all his years.
Instead, he and Lyndi turned and faced Tineen together.
Before any of them could make another move, four more Alaz dragons dropped to the ground. Two facing off with Levi and Lyndi and the other two stalking toward William and Marin as they landed beside their brothers, William having to help Marin who tumbled end over end with the impact on the ground.
Fuck. In all his planning for this moment, it had never come down to this.
As one, Levi and Lyndi surged forward. Except Tineen leaped into the air, leaving his men to handle them.
Levi tackled the biggest dragon in front of him, pumping his legs and driving it back until he managed to flip the bastard like a turtle. Immediately, the creature started thrashing at him with tail, talons, and teeth, but Levi was bigger, stronger. He struck hard and managed to grab it by the base of a spike, then, standing on its shoulders, twisted hard. The crunch of bones sent a satisfying reverberation through him, and the thing went limp, dangling from his mouth.
He spat it out and was about to spring around when pain shattered through his right hind leg. Twisting, wrenching agony followed the motion