Page 44 of Red and Her Dragons (Dirty Paranormal Fairytale Haremlan 4)

I was a white dragon. And taking into consideration that I would normally stand out at night, especially one with as clear of a sky as the night was, which was also unusual for this particular region, I had learned how to keep myself hidden. A sort of cloaking ability, so to speak. Not every dragon has the ability, just like not every dragon needed to keep themselves hidden. But for ones like myself, it came in handy. Particularly on nights with a lot of recon, such as this one.

At first, I wasn’t able to find a thing. Not even the human camps, which made sense. They were likely on the move and wouldn’t be where I had last seen them. I probably would have been more surprised had they had remained in place. But I had a feeling whoever was responsible for the light, not only did they still lingered out of sight, but I suspected they were one and the same with the camps. I just had to catch them at the right time to be certain.

And so, I did. In the matter of fifteen to twenty minutes, I came to a collection of… something in the form of moving shadows. Though one might suspect shadowy figures in the middle of the night, within the heart of a forest, these were different. Like the night had taken on an essence and life of its own. If I had hair, it would rise on the back of my neck. But scales didn’t work that way. Nevertheless, I couldn’t shake the unnatural chill that covered my entire body.

What was worse, there were dozens of them.

I needed to get a better look, even though a move like that would require me getting closer and reveal my presence. That was a risk I needed to take. But whatever was moving below me, they were moving faster than what seemed normal… and in the direction of where Marcus’s friends lived.

I had minutes to act before I would be too late to do anything to stop the marching army. It was do or die time.

Swooping in closer, I angled myself toward the ground until I got a clear idea of who I was chasing. I gasped as I realized I was following the wolves. How the wolves had managed to get so much speed or be able to use whatever lights I had observed remained to be discovered. The important thing was I had just learned that the wolves are behind the attacks, the traps, and they had grown in numbers beyond what we had anticipated.

A howl ripped through the night air. The shadows broke off in different directions. Except for the group in front of me. They had turned around and ran toward me. I landed and faced the group of dogs head on.

The plan was simple enough… in theory. I needed to take care of this group and chase after the others before they caught Marcus and Emily by surprise. Because I was certain the tactic the wolves had just pulled was a way to stop me with this smaller group, giving the larger one time to get to where they were going. The only hitch was, they had strengths I had yet to figure out. Abilities that wolves shouldn’t have possessed.

As I stared down the small group of wolves growling and nipping at the air toward me, I sucked in a breath. Ice filled my throat. I held onto my magic, letting it form a ball. But the wolves, it seemed knew what I was up to and had grown impatient and attacked. Sharp claws and teeth bit into my legs and tail. I managed to keep my wings from being torn but then a wolf climbed on to my back.

I was overwhelmed.

Two more wolves joined their buddy on my back and more teeth sank into the back of my neck. I roared, releasing the ball of ice into the air.

A rush of fury set my nerves on fire. Now they pissed me off.

I flung my neck back and stomped my feet, twirling to fling the wolves off me and get the ones that were at my feet to back off. The wolves on the ground flew through the air in all directions. The ones on my back seemed to have had a good enough hold on my scales that they hung on. I barely caught the sight of one wolf who landed against a tree trunk with a yelp and a sickening crunch. His body fell to the ground in a lifeless lump.

I roared as I continued to fight off the wolves on my back. In the distance, a howl returned my roar. The rest of the wolves leaped from my back and fled, likely rushing after their friends.

But I refused to let them get away so easily. In fact, I had to do something about the whole group.

I launched into the air as magic filled my throat again. I was going to do the only thing I could to buy some time. Then I was going to find Bret and head for Marcus. With luck, we would arrive at the cabin before the dogshit hit the proverbial fan. Preferably with time to catch the army by surprise.

Keeping low to the treetops, I launched balls of ice toward the ground. When that caused a lot of destruction to the forest, I let loose my icy mist. A few yelps echoed through the air, signally I had found at least the ass end of the group.

I continued to circle the area until I was sure I had made a large enough dent in the collective and it was safe to go find Bret. Half the forest was covered in my magic and a collection of whimpers and high-pitched yelps filled the air. That was good enough for me.

I tapped into my strength, digging deep into my core, and put all the force I could muster into my speed. Not much longer and I entered Bret’s patrol area. I roared as I flew, hoping to catch his attention just in case he fell asleep on duty.

Minutes later, and with no luck finding him, I had run out of time. I spent too much of it already searching for the black dragon. I turned and started heading toward the cabin as Bret flew to my side. Relief filled me. I nodded at him. He returned the gesture, and we took off in the direction of the cabin.

With our friends in danger, time was against us. We needed to make it to the cabin soon before it was too late.

17

EMILY

Marcus and I were cuddling and basking in the afterglow of our sex. I smiled to myself. The night was cold, yet peaceful. The forest was still. Not even the small creatures made a sound. Everything was perfect.

My eyes started to draw close as sleep beckoned me. Marcus’s breathing was slow and rhythmic. His heartbeats drummed in his chest at an even beat. I couldn’t recall a time when I was more relaxed.

Just as I started to drift off to sleep, a trap had gone off. I felt it like a tug deep in my gut, followed by a rush of warmth. I shot upright the next second. From somewhere in the dark came painful screams that echoed through the night.

Marcus sat up and groggily asked, “What’s wrong? What’s going on?”

“One of my traps was triggered,” I said, standing from the ground and dusting off the debris from my body.

Marcus instantly stood and started helping with collecting the clothes. He tossed mine to me. “We have to hurry.”

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