Page 60 of Enemy Wolf

I felt like a fake wolf, even though it was still the only animal I felt living under my human skin. Even now, despite this new intuition guiding me to my half-brother, no new awareness prowled inside me. I didn’t feel like I could grow wings or breathe fire. Like always, it was just me and my silver-furred animal.

My wolf had been quiet for a while. He was steadfast, determined. He fully supported this new guiding instinct leading us to Mokir and didn’t give a huff where it came from. He wanted vengeance for our mate, to end the danger present to her. The delusional furball still believed she would want us, accept and approve of us as her mate after all this.

The rational, human side of me knew it was over and that it would remain the biggest regret of my life. Once Derric figured out I intentionally led the pack away from Mokir’s trail, I might also get exiled out of Howling Death.

If I lived through this.

I hiked onward, my four paws never stopping even as the sun fell and the moon rose. Only right before the sun rose again did I allow myself to rest for a drink of water in an icy stream. Once refreshed, I hunted a small meal for the strength to keep going. Despite the presence of pheasants around, I bypassed them for a young male hare. Too many memories with pheasants.

The cold air penetrated my fur at this elevation, and my paw pads ached with soreness when I finally caught his scent. Burnt wood and debris clogged my senses, like I’d happened upon a forest fire. But the landscape was pristine–untouched wilderness with snow-capped peaks in the distance. The stench was horrid, but I pressed on, knowing I was nearing my ultimate goal.

Mokir was close enough to be seen. If he wanted to be seen, that was.

I scanned the trees in the small clearing I’d found myself in, looking for any conspicuous reptilian shapes in the pine boughs. My shitty canine vision didn’t reveal much, though. I’d see better if I was human, but that would leave me vulnerable.

“So you figured it out, little brother.”

I whipped around to find Mokir sauntering toward me, naked in his human form except for the orange scales shimmering across his skin in different areas. Dragons liked to do that, I didn’t know why. It wasn’t like werewolves walked around on two legs with canine ears or fur on our faces.

I shifted to human to respond to him. “What are you talking about?”

“You tapped into that dragon instinct to find me.” He grinned with a mouth full of fangs. “Always knew you had it in you, despite your genetics choosing the inferior animal.”

I ignored his jabs, as I’d always done since childhood. “Why did you really come here? Why harass my mate?”

“Because I was bored.”

“Bored? You crossed into enemy territory and left your mark on an innocent witch because you’re bored?”

“Yeah,” the dragon replied with a shrug. “Nothing’s happening in Shadowburn Cliffs. All we do is mine and process draitrium to sell to the vampires so they can day walk. Business is down because Thorne doesn’t want a territory full of sun-junkies. Aran doesn’t have an ambitious scale on his body, so Hellfire MC isn’t doing shit about it. No new business ventures, territory expansion, nothing. Shadowburn is as stagnant as a puddle, and if something doesn’t change, it’s going to dry up.”

“So that’s what this is?” “I growled. “You harm a witch and make threats against the territory to shake things up? To get Aran’s attention?”

“Nah, fuck him. Dragons need a new leader, and Aran is too soft. Rumor has it he even made a deal with one of you wolfkind.”

I thought back to the mark on Sawyer’s hand and his defensiveness over it, but then a bigger realization dawned on me. “You really are trying to overthrow Hellfire,” I said in disbelief. “The pack thought it might be true, but you really are unhinged enough to betray your own kind.”

“Unhinged?” Mokir scoffed. “Try ‘revolutionary’. I’m leading dragonkind into a new age. One where tyrants don’t consort with the enemy and ignore everyone from their thrones.”

I barked out a laugh. “How do you expect to do that? One dragon against a horde of them. You don’t even have your toxic fire potion now.”

“Easy. I’ll double the size of our territory by burning Vargmore until it’s nothing but a husk.” More scales appeared on his skin as wide, reptilian wings spread from his back. “Starting with you, little brother.”

He lifted into the air with one powerful beat of his wings, his features shifting away from human to the fire-breathing monster within him.

I turned and started running, but I wasn’t fast enough to escape the heat already singing my back.

Chapter 22

Orson

I took a running leap, somehow shifted in the middle of a freefall, and landed on all fours just as the stream of fire lit up the air where I had been a moment before. Diving into a cluster of bushes, I realized my error when I noticed how dry the branches were. Flames engulfed me and I ran out, charging so hard through the wall of fire that I didn’t notice the burrs and thorns scraping me.

All I could do was run. While I’d been at the top of the food chain, an apex predator all my life, there was little difference between me and a rabbit now. I was this dragon’s fucking prey. Not only that, he was toying with me and having the time of his life.

No matter how fast I ran, I could hear the beat of his wings and feel the great gusts of air. The sounds of his wings were slow as he followed me at a leisurely pace. Sometimes he blasted fire at my heels, spurring me into a harder sprint. Other times, he blew it over my head, creating a fire wall in front that forced me to stop and change directions abruptly.

The infernal beast anticipated every fake-out and dodge I made. How could he not with his bird’s-eye view? His roars sounded like laughter. He was enjoying this, while I was quickly running out of gas.

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