Page 44 of All's Fair in Lion and War
But this woman didn’t smell like anything. She smelled…human.
“It’s not her.” One of the dragon males approached with the female and pushed a hunk of dark matted hair out of her face.
Saul shifted and shoved his way forward through the males standing around completely ignoring the terrified womanstillbound at the wrists.
“Move.” His voice shook with emotion—anger, disappointment, shame. How could they be so oblivious to her pain?
He elbowed a dragon in the ribs, knocking the large male into the snow. Then knelt next to the woman and tore the ropes from her wrist and from her ankles.
She wasn’t quite looking at him with the holy-crap-what-just-happened expression he was expecting, instead she blankly stared. It was like she was frozen. Shock had locked her mind in a box and she either couldn’t get out or didn’t want to.
“We’re here to help you.” He tried to make his tone soft and reassuring, but her face didn’t change.
“It’s not her.” The same male spoke again and Saul bit the inside of his cheek to keep from hitting the man in the face.
“They have a dozen hostages. We have no way of knowing which group has Novik’s mate. They all need to be rescued.” Kann’s voice held a sharp edge of command that Saul hadn’t ever heard before from the younger male.
Col stepped up beside Kann and put a hand on his shoulder. TheirVrakanodded his head and turned to face the dragon males scattered through the trees in the dark. “We are here for all of the hostages. Every last one of them. Now that the element of surprise has been eliminated, we hunt fast and hard before they can disappear.”
He turned and met Saul’s gaze. Then turned to Tor. “You and Saul take the woman down the mountain to town and put her with the others so she will be safe.”
Tor opened his mouth to say something and Saul elbowed him in the stomach, effectively silencing him.
Col’s mouth twitched, like he was hiding a smile.
“Then return to us as quickly as possible. We have a long night ahead of us and the weather is likely to turn on us soon. By the time you get back, I hope to have taken down at least another pod, if not two.”
“At least one got away,” a male voice called from the edge of the group. “There’s a blood trail leading southwest.”
“We’ll follow him then.” Col words were unquestionable commands. Authority rippled from every word he spoke. “And I want him alive. I want as many of the next group alive as possible. We need to ask them questions.”
Col was a prince by blood, but Saul had never been in the presence of someone who commanded everyone around him. His alpha from his old pride hadn’t even come close in comparison.
Power flowed from Col the same way water ran downhill. And the other dragons felt it too.
No one questioned his orders.
No one balked.
No one made a single sound.
Not even Novik.
“You three bury the bodies. Deep. Use your beasts. We don’t want animals or tourists or the rangers to find them.” The three dragon males he assigned to clean up left quickly. Their human footstep soon switched to the heavy lumbering sounds of dragons pushing through the brush.
Col quickly divided up the rest of the group and sent them after the bleeding straggler. All except two males, who stood quietly but their expressions of confusion were not well camouflaged.
“You and Tor be very careful,” Col said, then turned to the two remaining men from Novik’s group. “You two go with them. We don’t know where any of the pods are and they are vulnerable carrying the woman.”
The dragon males nodded and murmured a quietyes Vaaedri,recognizing his Reylean bloodline honoring his station as a prince.
Saul lifted the silent woman from the ground, careful of her bruises and tender limbs. She didn’t have enough clothing on to be out in an Alaskan winter—sweatpants, tennis shoes, a t-shirt, and hoodie. They hadn’t even given her gloves. Her fingers were so white and her teeth were chattering together.
He shouldn’t be the one carrying her. “Vraka.” He turned to Col. “One of the dragons should carry her. She’s so cold. Their heat would be more beneficial. I’m warm, but not the same way.”
Col nodded.
One of the males stepped forward. “I will carry her.”
