Chapter Six

"No!" Silver yelled as Owen disappeared.

She reached for him because she recognized that electricity in the air. His Change happened so fast, her hand was flung backward and nearly yanked her arm out of socket. His boar's coarse hair burned her hand, and an explosion of water covered her vision completely as the wave his Change created rocketed the raft backward.

Behind her Hallie and Corey yelled something she couldn't understand, and the roar of Captain's bear rattled her ears.

The splashing of the river was enormous, like some tornado had taken the currents and were lifting them into the air. She only got a flash of pitch-black fur, and the blur of something lighter. The war was enormous and as the water fell off enough for her to see the boar and the bear circle each other in the shallows, Silver's heart sank to the river bottom.

Owen. Was. Huge.

She hadn't ever seen a shifted boar in person, and hadn't known what to imagine. It wasn't like one of the wild boars she's seen run across the road when she was little. He had to be a thousand pounds of aggression, and so much bigger than any natural born animal. His eyes were the color of blue ice, and foot-long tusks protruded from his bottom jaw. They were already tipped and dripping with red. His black fur was spiked in a bristled mohawk down his back.

The grizzly across from him had his ears flattened against his head and venom in his eyes as he charged. The blur of violence was shocking, even to a lion shifter who should've been used to it. This wasn't like the lion fights she'd witnessed. This was two monsters with different skill sets trying to kill each other.

"Can you stop them?" she cried out to Gunner.

The Alpha was dragging his kayak toward the bank, his back to the battle. He turned and slid her a terrifying bi-colored silver and blue glare. He turned and lifted his soaking wet white t-shirt to expose a massive slash down his ribs that was only half-healed. "I tried to stop them last night. No point!" he yelled. "Let them kill each other."

"Oh my gosh," she whispered, stumbling through the water toward the fight that was pushing farther upstream. "There's humans!" Silver pointed upriver at the group on floats heading toward them.

"I'll stop them," Hallie called as she struggled through the waist-deep water. A snarl ripped out of her, and her grizzly shredded out of her, and charged the battle.

"Fuck!" Corey yelled at Silver as she ran past her. "You caused it. Fix it!" Her bear ripped from her so close to Silver, she was thrown to the side and was barely able to stay upright.

Fix it? How could Silver fix it? She was one lioness in a Crew of titans much bigger than her animal. She couldn't fix anything!

Upriver there was a huge plume of purple smoke that cut off her view of the screaming humans floating down toward them. Silver struggled through the deepening water and closed her eyes as her skin began to tingle with the first signs of the Change.

This was going to be so bad.

The lioness ripped out of her, and her pained scream turned to a roar. She didn't have control like this. Not like the Fastlanders. She'd been separated from her animal years ago and now everyone in the Fastlanders would see how fucked up she really was.

All Silver could do was watch helplessly as her animal bolted through the shallows and leapt through the air, her claws extended.

She would go after the boar, because he was the biggest threat. She would go after Owen because that's what her animal did. That's why she'd been so attractive to Rook. That's why she'd been chosen to be a Queen. She didn't go after wars she could win. She went after the biggest danger. She bought others time, at the detriment of herself.

I'm sorry, she thought as her claws sank into the flank of the enormous boar.

Something awful happened. Something awful and confusing.

Owen's animal disappeared the second she sank her claws into his hide, and Owen yelled in pain as he pitched into his human form under her weight. Captain was already on him, and now Owen was at the mercy of the massive grizzly. Silver faced off with him and went under him as Owen was pushed back into the water. He was yelling something incomprehensible, his voice roaring in her head, but she was busy. It wasn't just Captain in this now, the she-grizzlies had joined, and the confusion of whether Silver was ally or foe turned everyone against each other. It was a mass of battling, and for Silver personally, pain.

Silver was pushed into deeper water, and she struggled to keep her head above the surface as the grizzlies fought. She went under, pushed off the bottom hard, and broke the surface, but where she expected to smell fresh air, there was smoke instead. Not the purple kind that was cutting off the humans' vision of them upstream, but dark gray thick plumes of smoke that accompanied a blistering heat she didn't understand.

Strong hands yanked her out from under one of the grizzlies, and the battle was breaking up, she could tell. The hands pulled her under the water, and she panicked, kicking hard and slashing with her claws.

Owen wrapped his arms around her middle tight enough to threaten crushing her ribs, and he kicked hard, swimming with her, dragging her backward into deeper water. What was he doing? She would drown! She hadn't known to take a deep breath of air before she'd gone under, and already her lungs were screaming!

Silver looked at the surface just in time to see flames drag straight across where she had just been.

It burned! It burned so bad! The water heated to a boil around them, millions of bubbles rushing to the surface, and Owen was trying so hard to drag her deeper. She could see that now. Her lungs were on fire, needing oxygen, but she helped. She kicked with him, trying to escape that blistering heat in desperation.

Damon.

It had to be dragon's fire.

She was going to die under the anger of the Blue Dragon.

She needed air. She needed to breathe!

She kicked hard, but Owen was so strong. Owen, help!

Her lungs filled with water, and the lioness left. Just…left her body.

She Changed with nothing left in her, right in Owen's grasp, and her vision collapsed inward.

"Silver!" someone yelled in her ear. "Silver, wake up!"

Confused, she opened her eyes, and coughed water out of her lungs. She coughed and coughed, feeling like she would never be able to drag in the air she needed to survive. Gasping short breaths, she opened her eyes to find Owen holding her upright in neck deep water. The forest on either side of the river was on fire in a straight line, and thick smoke filled the air.

It felt like everything was delayed, in slow motion.

Corey and Hallie were human again and running through the waves toward them. Captain's grizzly bear was pacing the bank with another massive grizzly, their eyes on the fire on the other side of the river, right over she and Owen's heads. Ace was guiding humans out of the water upriver, and when his eyes landed on her, they were pitch black. His vampire side must be in control.

Owen dragged her to shallower water, and she could see it—the water was turning red.

"Owen?" she choked out.

"It's okay."

"The water—"

"It's going to be okay." But the truth was shaky in his voice like he didn't really believe it.

Hallie reached them first and dragged Silver shallower, pushing her to get to the bank. "We need to go."

"Will Damon come back to finish us?" she asked in terror, her skin blistering as it hit the air.

"That wasn't Damon," Owen ground out from behind them. "It's worse.

"What?" she asked, voice trembling. "What could be worse than Damon?"

"Wreck," he said simply.

"What's a wreck?" she whispered.

"The last member of our Crew," Owen gritted out.

Hallie and Corey were pushing her toward the bank. "Too many humans here," Corey snarled.

Her legs weren't working like they should. "I'm trying," she said apologetically, but pitched forward, cut her hands and knees on the rocks of the shallows with a grunt.

Owen's strong hand hooked under her arm, lifted her, and without a second of hesitation, he scooped her up, folded her into his arms like she weighed nothing, then strode out of the water onto the bank.

"Ace!" he called. "We need out of here."

Ace trudged out of the shallows up river and strode for them. "It'll hurt," he called.

Owen was heading right for him, and behind him, Hallie and Corey were jogging to keep up. Behind them, Gunner and Captain had Changed back to their human forms. Everyone was bleeding. Everyone was burned. The air smelled like wet copper.

"We're all hurt. No time to get a ride. Wreck is watching. I can feel him," Gunner growled in an inhuman voice behind Owen. "Get us away from him."

"Fuck. I hate this part," Ace muttered. "Where?" he demanded as he picked up his pace toward them.

"Not the trailer park," Corey said low.

"Silver's cabin," Owen growled as he slowed and braced himself.

Ace charged toward them and close the last ten yards, and his face transformed into something sharp and haunting…terrifying. He leapt at them and disappeared into a cloud of billowing purple smoke, and then Silver was ripped from her skin. That's what it felt like. She screamed in agony as she was separated from herself. Owen's hands gripped her so tight, and just as she thought she would die, she fell from the air and hit the ground hard.

She dragged in a long breath of air and looked around at the others in horror. They were laid out across the clearing in front of her rental cabin, and Ace was retching near the tree line, his body convulsing with it.

Corey clawed her way toward him as the remnants of the purple smoke dissipated into the woods.

"Oh my God, oh my God," Silver chanted as she rolled from side to side, holding her stomach as her body slowly remembered how to be a body again.

They'd been at the river. They'd been at the river! Miles away! And Ace had what? Transported the entire Crew here?

What the fuck?

Rook didn't know. He didn't understand. He couldn't fathom the power that existed in this Crew.

Owen was still beside her, and as she caught her breath, she took him in. His skin had burns on it, and his hip was bleeding bad. His glowing blue eyes were on her. He blinked slowly. She'd never seen anyone look so pale before.

"Owen," she whispered, forcing herself upright. She gasped at how awful it felt just to move.

"I need food," he murmured hoarsely.

"Okay, okay. I'm going to get food! I'll be right back. Gunner? Gunner! I need help! Owen needs help.

Gunner seemed to be doing the best out of everyone and was already upright and striding for Owen. His eyes were glowing that intimidating silver and blue, and his teeth were gritted as if he were in pain, but he wasn't even limping.

"He needs meat," Gunner snarled as he knelt beside Owen.

Fuck, okay. Okay! She tried to ignore how messed up her body was as she staggered into the cabin. For a moment, she was disoriented and forgot what direction the kitchen was, righted herself and bolted for it. She had roast beef deli meat that was easy to get into him. Silver yanked it out of the fridge and turned for the door.

"Toss it to me," Captain said gruffly from where he was striding into the kitchen.

She did, and he caught it easily, then stumbled back out the front door.

Frantic, she pulled a box of frozen breakfast sandwiches out of the freezer, piled them onto a paper plate with shaking hands and shoved them into the microwave, set the timer and while those heated, she rummaged through the refrigerator and pulled out anything she thought could help any of them.

"More," Captain urged as he returned.

"In the microwave!" she said as she fumbled to open a package of uncooked steaks.

Captain yanked open the door and disappeared out the front door with the pile of sausage egg sandwiches.

She didn't feel well. She didn't feel well! As she slammed a large pan onto the stove and turned it on, her skin blistered again just being near heat. The memory of that strange fire haunted her for a moment and she thought she would retch, took a break and locked her arms against the counter, breathed shakily in and out, in and out. Everything was okay. She was alive. The Fastlanders were alive.

God, everything had gone so wrong.

She pushed off the counter and poured a drizzle of oil into the pan, then set the steaks in there, wrenched up the fire. She didn't care if they were good steaks, she just needed a quick seer for the Crew.

Captain returned. "Rare works," he said, and she didn't miss the frantic edge to his voice.

"Yep," she said as she forked the steaks onto a paper plate and handed them over.

"You need to eat too! Owen said to eat."

"Is he okay?" she asked as he jogged for the door.

"He's already bitching about you eating, so I would say he's fine. More food."

She was running low on meat, so at this point, she filled a grocery bag with anything she could get to easily in the pantry, then staggered outside to find the Crew hanging loosely around Owen, who was sitting upright. He still looked pale, but his lips quirked up into a smile when he saw her. Around a mouthful, he asked, "You okay?"

And for whatever reason, that simple question gave her body permission to rest. She sagged to her knees in front of him and dropped the bag of food between them. She swayed slightly. "I don't know if I can make it to the rodeo tonight."

Owen's face froze, and then the smile was back as he dropped his head and chuckled.

Off to the side, Captain was squatted down, staring at Owen's face, and he huffed a low laugh too.

"Girl, you have been here for one day and you already have Wreck trying to burn the entire Crew alive," Corey pointed out. "You aren't invited to the rodeo."

"Hey now, that isn't entirely her fault," Hallie said kindly.

"It's okay," Silver said, not wanting to cause any more tension in the Crew. "It is on me. I popped at Captain and caused the fight, and the snowball effect after that is what it is." Silver felt like the dirt on the bottom of a shoe right now as she shoved a handful of cheese crackers into her maw and chewed. "If it makes you feel any better, I have this effect on my Pride too."

"That actually does make me feel better," Gunner said from off to the side where he stood beside where Hallie was sitting. He was rubbing the scruff on his jaw and staring at Silver with an unsettling glare.

Gah, she felt awful. Silver dumped out the contents of the grocery bag, half-surprised at what she'd brought out here. She'd been panicking and just scooped what she could. "I have squeeze cheese," she said pitifully, holding it up for anyone who wanted it.

No one took it, and it was so quiet in the clearing, so she sighed and popped the top, then squeezed a big dollop into her mouth and swallowed it down. And yep, the tears were genuine. They trailed down her face.

"Are you crying?" Captain asked.

"Fuck you, man," Owen growled at him.

"I'm sorry," she said, wiping her eyes. "It's just I'm butt-naked in front of a Crew of monsters who are also strangers, and I almost got all of us killed and one of you can travel through space, and I don't feel good, and I think I have burns, and my lungs hurt from all the water in them, and I'm confused because I'm supposed to be here gathering intel, but now I just feel really horrible that I ruined a fun river day. And that's all. That's my story." She swallowed hard and wiped her leaking eyes again. "The end."

There was a three-count of silence, and then Owen said, "I think you are really pretty when you're naked."

"Oh my gosh," Corey muttered, and slapped him upside the head as she passed.

"What?" Owen demanded. "It was a compliment! Girls like compliments."

"I do like compliments," she uttered, swallowing down a sob.

"Come on, Traitor," Corey said from where she was climbing the stairs of the porch.

"Me?" Silver asked, confused.

Corey pulled a face at her. "Do you see anyone else who is a traitor here? Yes, you. Captain, eyes to yourself. She's not comfortable naked. She just said that. Piss off."

"Come on," Hallie said gently as she knelt beside her and helped her up. "Let's go clean up. I am also not used to being naked around a Change. The boys are desensitized, but it's a bigger deal for us." And bless Hallie, she flipped Captain the bird as they made their way past him toward the house.

Once inside, all three of them stopped in the living room and looked at each other.

It was too quiet, so Silver broke the silence. "That was a disaster."

Hallie pursed her lips against a smile and hung her head, hooked her hands on her bare hips. "We're definitely going to be on the news tonight."

"Oh no," Silver murmured. That complicated things. Rook would see that mess. That seemed scarier than potentially appearing in all of her post-Change nudity on television.

"Screw it," Corey muttered as she turned for the bedroom. "They'll probably blur out our bodies."

"How did Ace do that?" Silver asked as she followed them to the bedroom. "That was amazing, but I never want to do that again."

"That's a party foul question, Traitor," Corey reminded her.

"Right. There's extra clothes in the drawers if you all want to borrow some."

Corey was already rifling through there, and Hallie was examining a cut across her cheek in the full-length mirror. "Damon is going to be pissed when he hears about this."

"Will you be in trouble?" Silver asked.

"No, I mean pissed at Wreck," Hallie said, catching a dress that Corey tossed her.

Knowing that would be another party-foul question, Silver just nodded and kept quiet.

"Hey, bright side, you look like you got cooked at a barbecue, and you just cried and also shot-gunned liquid cheese in front of Owen, and he still complimented you," Corey said. "Pretty sure he likes you, if you're into it."

Silver belted out a single laugh, and was shocked by the sound. She was still getting used to it. The vision of her crying and chugging squeeze cheese in front of the man she had a crush on gave her another layer of mortification that she could do nothing with but laugh at.

"I am the belle of the ball," she uttered.

"I mean, I respected the move, and I don't even like you," Corey said. It wasn't completely the truth on the last part, but Silver didn't point it out.

Hallie flashed her a look and went back to brushing out her damp hair with a comb she'd plucked from the dresser.

"Owen's nice," Silver admitted softly.

"Owen's a mess," Corey corrected her. "But so are you, so I could see the appeal."

"Are you going to stop being so mean any time soon?" Hallie asked her cousin.

Corey shrugged. "Probably not. She's here to spy on Ace. No forgivesies."

"That's fair. If someone came in to spy on my mate…" Silver frowned. "Well, I would probably help them, fuck that guy."

"You have a mate?" Hallie asked.

"I used to. Kind of. I don't know what I am anymore. He still says I belong to him and I have a shot at getting my Queen rank back, but he reminds me that I'm nothing all the time. The spying was supposed to reinstate my rank in the Pride."

"Your Pride sucks," Corey said, grimacing.

A few days ago, Silver would've argued with her. She'd been trained to protect their behavior no matter what, but she'd watched the couples here today. They were kind to each other. And even though she and Corey didn't get along, she was protective of her mate, like she should be. Silver respected her too. How many times had Rook thrown her under the bus over the past few years? Hundreds.

"Rook has a new Queen. They just had the ceremony," Silver said as she dug through her dresser drawers. She froze, stunned at herself, and turned. "I don't know why I just said that. I'm sorry. That's a party-foul admission, just forget that little gem slipped out, okay?"

Hallie sank down onto the bed. "He's got himself a new Queen, huh? You know what that means? It means you're single."

"Technically I've been single for over a year. I've just been working to…" She frowned. "To be his mate again. If he accepted me. If I did enough, and was good enough. If I was perfect…maybe he would…" She scrunched up her face. "Take me back. Hey you know how sometimes when you say something out loud, it sounds way worse than you thought?"

Both Hallie and Corey wore matching grossed-out grimaces. "No man should ever make you feel like you have to work to be good enough," Corey enlightened her.

"Amen," Hallie agreed. "He's the one who isn't good enough."

"But…he's a King."

"Sweet, who cares?"

Well, huh. "All of the lions?"

"He's the one who sent you here, right?" Hallie asked.

Silver nodded.

"Cool, cool, cool, so the man is making you jump through hoops just to be at his side again? And he's sending you into what he considers enemy territory, alone, with no back-up, to spy on shifters who can snuff you out any second they want to? That ain't your man, girl. That's an anchor." Hallie cocked her head and narrowed her eyes. "You're a lioness. A lioness. We saw you fighting out there. You went after everyone. A woman like you doesn't need an anchor."

And then Hallie and Corey left the room. Just, walked out, leaving Silver to mull over those words that all of the sudden felt very important.

What was she doing here?

Not just in this room, she could see how she'd gotten here to this moment, but what was she doing putting her life at risk to be accepted by a man she couldn't even stand? Hallie and Corey said things in a way that disrupted her entire way of thinking. But it felt right.

A small part of her was defensive. Those two women didn't understand the dynamics of a lion Pride. They didn't understand the traditions. They were just making snap judgements on something they couldn't fathom. She wanted to be protective of her decisions. Wanted to snap at them that, ‘they just didn't know.' But she sat down on the edge of the bed and really considered what they'd said instead. She absorbed it and pulled herself out of her defensive tendencies, and really heard them.

They weren't trying to be mean. Being mean would be them telling her she should go back to him and put herself into the small box Rook had created for her, and do better, and try to be perfect for a man whose idea of perfection was ever-changing and unreachable. They hadn't done that. They'd said screw him, she could be what she wanted.

In a way, they'd said she was too good to be chasing anchor-boys like him.

Enemy territory.

Enemy territory?

She'd thought of the Fastlanders as that, but the more time she spent here in the Mountains of the Blue Dragon, the more she thought she had actually come from enemy territory, and stepped into something different.