Chapter Forty-One

Exhaustion took over me. Learning new powers took everything out of a girl. Dorran sat me on the bed and covered me with a soft blanket. Within seconds I was asleep, my body had completely given up on me. She"d fought hard for the day and deserved it.

The best sleep was sleep with no dreams.

Just the span of black seas, and the utter darkness.

I'd been so deep in my mind when Dorran began to try to wake me that I startled awake. My eyes popped open to his frantic face.

"What's going on?" I asked, my voice heavy with sleep.

"One of the wolves left the cabin, and one of the castle workers saw him in the woods and went back to tell my father. Now my father is getting an army ready to come and remove the wolves. I need to get there before they go."

I swung my legs from the bed to get ready to leave. "No, I'll deal with my father. You stay here. I have Toby and a few other dragons guarding the place. I don't want you in the middle of our fight."

"What if something happens to you?"

Dorran glanced down at me with a lifted brow. "Oh, so you're all tough now, and you think I can't handle myself?"

I rubbed my eyes with the palms of my hands. "Well, ya know, I'm pretty well equipped it seems. You may need my help."

Dorran rubbed a piece of my hair between his fingers. "You stay here, Little Mouse. There is food in the microwave for you, and please don't toss Toby off the mountain."

"No promises," I mumbled.

Dorran swiftly left me in the bedroom alone. I walked down the hallway as the front door shut behind him. Toby sat on the couch in the living room and lowered his phone to look at me. "Look who is up. The all-powerful Amara."

I found the plate Dorran left me in the microwave and heated it. "I wonder which wolf went into the forest?" I asked.

"If I had to guess I would say your friend Roan. He seems like a rebel to me."

Why would he go against his alpha's orders?Nibbling on my lip, I turned to grab my plate, pulling out the pot roast.

Sliding onto the barstool, I took a bite and closed my eyes.

Toby stood up, shoved his phone into his pocket, and stopped cold halfway toward me. He turned his head toward the hallway. Nerves fluttered down my spine.

"What is it?"

Toby didn't budge, only glanced in my direction, and tossed me a look that screamed run, but I couldn't. I wouldn't.

Sliding off the barstool, I walked around, expecting to see Evian or one of his goons.

Roan stood at the entrance to the living room with his heated gaze on me.

"Roan," Toby said. "You don't want to do this."

Roan titled his head. "Yeah? Who says? Your Dragon Prince? He's blinded by the woman, and so are you. So is Chandler. If we kill her, we won't have to commit suicide by fighting the sirens."

He is here to kill me.

Toby angled in front of me, raising his palm in a surrendering motion. "You don't want to hurt her. Dorran will rip you apart. Amara will rip you apart."

Roan smiled a devilish one that made my blood run cold. "It's now or never. I'll gladly take her down with me so the entire pack doesn't die at the hands of her kind."

Toby braced himself to fight this werewolf to keep me safe.

I tried to reach out to Dorran, radiating my panic to him, but I wasn't sure if it worked. Roan tilted his head to one side, dropped to his knees, and shifted in the middle of the living room. He knocked over the TV and shattered the coffee table.

Toby didn't flinch as the snarling beast began to walk toward him.

I watched the wolf snap and jump in an attempt to scare us. I don't know where the scared girl inside of me went, but she wasn't there. Toby launched at the wolf, wrestling with him, holding him down for milliseconds before he knocked him to the side.

Toby screamed for me to run, without looking away from the wolf.

I didn't.

I stood my ground.

Toby grumbled something about me being stubborn, but I didn't mind him.

Toby slid between Roan's front legs, punching upward against his stomach, making Roan howl in pain. He came out between his back legs and kicked him in the ass, sending him against the sliding glass doors.

Roan bounded by quickly, capturing Toby's arm in his mouth. He pulled until I heard the tearing of his skin. Toby yelled out in pain. The adrenaline inside of me rocketed through me, my head rolled backward and my arms went straight out, lifting Roan from the ground.

Toby fell with a heavy thud. "You leave me alone, go back to your pack ground, or I'll kill you right now."

Roan snapped at me with drool slinging from his mouth.

I took that as a no.

Raising him higher, I tossed him backward against the hallway, the corner of the wall hit his back, making him curl into a ball on the floor.

Roan crawled to his feet, the hair on the back of his neck standing up like a cat. He pawed at the floor, jumped forward, and knocked me backward onto my ass.

Toby tried to move, but I pinned him to the wall.

"Let me go," he shouted.

I didn't need him getting hurt. Sasha seemed to like him, and she always wanted a dragon boy toy, as badly as Toby worked my nerves, he was a good guy.

Roan hovered above me as if he was going in for the kill.

His thoughts were a jumbled mess.

Don't look at her. Don't look. Remember Maria. Save the pack.

"Is your mate named Maria?" He didn't like that. "I'm not trying to put you in a trance," I said softly, using the door to stand up in front of him, inches away from his teeth. "I don't want you to get hurt. Your mate will feel it, right?"

Roan's gaze shifted, and for a brief moment I thought he was going to back off, but he didn't. He raised his head, his chest hovering over my small frame, and he used his paw to swipe me across the face.

I flung against the couch, my leg hitting the broken shards of the living room table, knowing I couldn't be nice anymore.

Once I hit the couch, I bounded up, lifting from the ground, I watched as he attempted to jump at me, only this time, I hit him with everything I had inside.

He slid across the hardwood, hitting the dining room wall and creating a hole.

Roan whimpered, rubbing his head with his paw, I watched as he tried to get himself up to fight me. Toby stopped struggling against my restraint and watched as he fell to the ground.

Seconds went by of silence.

Roan was breathing but in pain. I could feel it.

Toby looked at me, and then his gaze shifted over my shoulder. Dorran stood at the doorway judging the scene in front of him. A trickle of blood ran down my leg from where he flung me, but it hadn't hurt.

"You let him hurt her?" Dorran asked Toby.

"No, she trapped me here. She tried to reason with him and then she did that," he said, pointing toward Roan.

Dorran's mossy-colored gaze shifted toward mine. "He is the one that went over, on purpose I guess. To distract me."

Dorran palmed the back of my neck and turned my face from side to side. "Are you okay? Your leg is bleeding."

"I'm fine. He's alive. You need to call Chandler to check on him. I don't want him to die if he doesn't have to."

Dorran's gaze was unreadable. "He's on his way up. I came back when I felt you reaching out. We need to get to the castle."

"Oh, I'm invited now?"

Dorran swallowed. "I don't want you here when Chandler sees Roan. Come on."

Dorran swung me into his arms, his fingers soft against my legs as he carried me outside. "We'll get you cleaned up at the castle. My dragon doesn't like to smell your blood. He's fuming."

I rested my head against his shoulder.

He launched us into the sky.

Over his shoulder, I saw Chandler climbing to the mountain, and running into the cabin.

I prayed he understood and that he could save him.

Death wasn't something I wanted to put on someone.

It wasn't my job to take lives.

I"m not God.

But if someone was threatening Dorran, our kingdom, or my life, I had to protect us the best I could. If that meant killing sirens or a wolf.

Then so be it.

Dorran landed on the bridge, swinging me down, he put both palms on my shoulders and kissed me. It was rushed, urgent, and nearly took my breath from my lungs. When he pulled back, his eyes were full of worry.

"I was so scared," he said. "When I felt your panic. Why didn't you let Toby fight him? He could have taken him."

I lost eye contact. "I don't want you to lose all your friends and guards because of me."

"Amara. You let the warriors fight for you, and you protect yourself. Do you hear me?"

"Yes," I whispered.

He sighed heavily. "God, what a nightmare."

Heavy wings fluttered in the near distance, and a shadow of a dragon danced closer. Dorran pulled me behind him and faced his father.

The rage on his face scared me.

This was our King. Mated to The Dragon Prince or not?

"Dammit, Dorran. You tell me what the hell is going on, right now!"