Page 38 of Klaus

But he wasn’t looking out for the man with the rifle, who’d been on the verge of striking me when he attacked.

“Look out!” I screamed when the rifle rose.

The older man, the more experienced man, the man who was shaken but not shocked at the sight of an attacking lion.

Klaus dodged the spray of bullets which emerged from the gun, bullets which lodged themselves in trees and sent bits of wood and bark flying in all directions.

I fought my way to my knees, ankles still shackled, and raised my arms above my head with the intention of hitting the man with the iron cuffs. He caught me out of the corner of his eye and swung the rifle around again, hitting the side of my head and knocking me on my side.

The lion let out a roar of rage. Through the hair which hung in my eyes, I saw him leaping toward the armed man to fight for me.

He was outmatched, and I knew it. I’d seen what weapons like that could do.

I opened my mouth to scream, but a sound, very much unlike my natural voice came out. “You will not harm him!” I bellowed in a deep, powerful voice which seemed to shake the leaves from the trees.

The man turned, shocked, the bullets he was about to fire into Klaus’s chest and stomach hitting one of his hind legs instead.

The roar turned to a whine of pain as Klaus fell, blood pouring from his wounds.

A familiar rushing sensation came over me, as if something buried down deep inside was coming to the surface in a burst of violent speed, and I gave into it because yes, yes, this was right.

The dragon burst free of its confines and towered over the armed man, bellowing again in an earsplitting roar which made him cower at my feet. Even so, he raised the gun as if to fire at me.

Klaus roared in caution, but I needed no warning. I needed only to lash out with my tail and make contact with the man’s fragile body, sending him flying against a tree and knocking the rifle from his hands.

I bellowed again, reveling in the pure joy of being who I was. Who I truly was.

The man twitched sporadically. I made certain he was looking up at me before I crushed his face with another blow from my tail, as he had tried to crush mine.

And immediately, I turned to Klaus.

He had shifted into his human form to better understand the wounds to his leg, which he was examining with shaking hands. But he smiled up at me when I bent to get a better look.

Our eyes locked.

“You make a beautiful dragon, you know,” he whispered. I warmed all over in pleasure, but the scent of his blood was more important, blood which hadn’t yet stopped flowing. He’d lost so much already.

There was no choice but to do what had to be done. I loved him. He was mine, and I was his, and there was nothing to be done about it but ensure he stayed alive.

So I reached out, sliding my arms beneath him and lifting him off the ground.

“What are you doing?” he sputtered, shaking his head, trying to push me away.

It was a stupid thing to do, really, and he would see that in time. I took off, exhilaration at the feeling of flying again almost overtaking the urgent need to get Klaus help. All shifters healed quickly, not just dragons, but he was still bleeding. If it didn’t stop soon…

Isla and Dallas were outside the cave, perhaps looking for us.

I landed, Klaus still clutched close to my chest.

“What happened?” Dallas cried out as I lowered Klaus to the ground. It didn’t take a doctor to see what was wrong with him. In an instant, he took off his belt and tied it around Klaus’s thigh to staunch the flow of blood, then covered him with his shirt before carrying in into the cave at a flat-out run.

I shifted, and Isla immediately noticed the crooked angle of my nose. “It’s a long story,” I whispered, not certain whether I should laugh or cry. I settled on both.

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