Page 71 of Been There Dragon That
“Yes,” Aarav answered, his voice solemn.
Col turned his head to follow the sounds.
Wrath followed his alpha’s gaze to where Tai had landed when Owen’s bear had attacked. Owen’s bear was still tearing into Tai’s body, even though the bastard was long dead.
Knox stood a few yards away, watching Owen.
No one moved to stop Owen.
Col looked down at Ryan. “Tai bit him. If we stopped the flow of blood in time, he’ll live.”
Wrath’s eyes widened.
Ryan would become part of the tribe if he survived.
In the chaos of trying to save his life, Wrath hadn’t registered that because Tai had been the one biting him, he would become a wolf if he lived. Tai and Knox both were royal blooded wolves—cousins.
“Let’s get him to the bunker so he can be looked after, and we can prepare him for what comes next if he makes it.” Col stood and turned to Wrath. “You’re bleeding, Wrath.”
“It went straight through. I’m already starting to heal.” No one needed to worry about him.
Col nodded and turned to the others. “Anyone else injured before we took out the men with rifles?”
“Only some scratches that are already healing. We are all well, alpha,” Saul said. “Should we stack the bodies to burn?”
“Yes. Nothing can be left for anyone to find.”
The men moved off away from them to collect the wolves and the men who had died in the fight.
Wrath stared down at Ryan. At the burned flesh over his wounds. At the pale color of his skin. His lips were dark. Cold. If the blood loss didn’t take him before the Reylean change took over, he’d die from the cold.
Wrath put his hands on the snow-covered ground and called up his heat. The snow melted around him first and spread out about ten feet. The air around him filled with steam as he turned himself into a source of warmth for the injured man on the ground.
Col turned and looked back at him. “Good. We’ll need that when we move him too. We can take turns so that he stays warm enough.” He walked toward the growing pile of bodies and shifted back into his beast. Col was bigger than Wrath as a dragon, though they shared the same onyx coloring.
He watched Col’s beast inhale and then breathe fire, burning away the death. Removing any trace a human might use to identify those who died in this clearing.
Owen’s angry growls had subsided. He’d backed away from the body, but he was still in beast form. And Wrath could hear Owen’s heart beating aggressively. The bear swung his big head back and forth and roared an angry, painful sound.
Owen, like Wrath, had lost all his family in the Exodus from Reylea. Except his sister Ava. Owen had been blessed in that way.
Wrath was alone. No sister, no parents. No one from his entire family had made it through the portal.
Leif had become family. And now Leif had been lost too.
Wrath could hear the pain Owen was feeling in the bear’s cries.
He’d cried like that when he arrived in this world. And he would cry like that again if anything happened to Rylee. Worse than that.
“Aarav.”
The lion shifter turned away from the burning bodies and walked to Wrath.
“Have you heard from Callum and the others this morning?”
“No, they checked in last night. The SUV lawyer guy hasn’t moved from the fancy ski resort about an hour south of town. Still no eyes on Jeff,” Aarav answered. “I’ll check in with them again as soon as we’re in range.”
“Thank you.”
