Lyra hit the throttle. “No, Chase, I won’t be back here ever again. Stay safe, man.”
Lyra hit the gas and did a doughnut in the parking lot before sending the car speeding down the highway, heading back for the house.
Lyra had clothes to pack and things to do. She was done hiding who she was from her family—she was going to introduce her entire pack to Adam and they would have to love him. Regardless of the outcome, Lyra was going home to Ridgeshire. She was going to rejoin her pack, and that thought alone made Lyra feel better than she had in a long time.
“I’ll see you soon, Dad,” Lyra said to herself, focused on the road ahead, picturing their house in Ridgeshire. “I’ll be home soon.”
Chapter 2 - Levi
The earth rushed past his eyes, greens and browns all coming in and out of focus. Levi was moving twice as fast as the fastest human could, yet his eyes saw everything. He noticed every leaf as it fell from the trees around him, could smell the changes in the air, feel the humidity on his skin. Most importantly, he could feel the vibrations made by his target several meters ahead of him.
Levi and his pack of dragons were chasing a rogue through the forest. The rogue dragon had come into their territory and Levi had instantly sensed the moment the dragon had shifted. He had no idea who they were, but one thing Levi had learned in all of his years as the leader of his pack—a rogue was always a problem.
They were most likely a scout sent by a different pack that was looking to expand their territory. They were testing the reaction, to see how fast they would be found, or if they would even be found at all. Levi wasn’t going to take any chances and wait. He would stop any threats to his pack instantly.
He ran through the forest alongside Garret, Val, and Adebayo, three members of his pack. He could hear Val moving at the top of the trees. The branches barely had time to creak under his weight as he jumped from branch to branch, following the target. Levi’s nostrils flared as he tasted the air, smelling his target ahead of him.
Unlike his target, Levi knew the surrounding woods and he would use that knowledge to his advantage. He quickly banked to the left, running uphill. “Stay on him!” he yelled back to the rest of the pack, knowing he was taking a risk. He quickly spotted the edge of the cliff he was looking for and powered through, rushing until he was at the top of it. From there, he looked down, using his sharp eyesight to catch the blur in the woods.
His pack members followed behind, chasing after the rogue. He looked further down and spotted the rogue dragon, about a minute ahead of them. Levi waited, and at the right moment he leaped from the top of the hill, shifting just a bit as he dropped toward the ground.
His skin instantly became coarser, scales quickly jutting out. His wings tore free from his shirt behind him and Levi soared to the ground, diving straight onto the enemy target. The impact knocked both men to the ground, and Levi rolled off to the side, baring his teeth and claws as the man turned around to face him.
The rogue let out a roar, and Levi roared back, letting his pack know exactly where he was. His call was louder, causing the man to take a step back and reconsider the fight, but it was too late. Levi leaped forward, gliding with his wings to throw a blow.
The rogue quickly broke a large branch off a tree and tossed it at Levi. Levi swatted it to the side with his wing, only for the rogue to dive toward him, knocking him back. With a swift kick to the midsection, Levi sent the dragon flying backward.
Levi got to his feet and rushed at him, throwing a powerful blow at the rogue. The man blocked the attack with both hands, the ensuing shockwave sending him to the ground. He had thought he would be able to take the blow full on from Levi, but Levi was a lot more powerful than the rogue had accounted for.
He turned to run, but Levi kicked his legs out from under him, grabbing him by the hair and slamming his face into the dirt. The other dragons caught up, slowing down as they saw Levi on top of the dragon. Val and Adebayo quickly walked up to Levi, pinning the rogue to the floor.
“What took you guys so long?” Levi asked, getting to his feet as they restrained the rogue.
“Little hard to keep up with you, Levi,” said Val, looking at him with a smile on her face.
Levi cocked his head to the side, nodding at her and Adebayo. He turned to face the rogue, who grunted, trying to break free from their powerful grips. “Who are you, and what are you doing in my territory?”
“Levi Strauss,” the shifter spat, his voice going from a growl back to its human form as he shifted his features back. “I knew you were strong, but that was incredible.”
“You haven’t answered my question,” Levi replied, shifting back as well. His wings morphed and blended back into his back, and his skin became smooth and human again.
Dragons were different than other kinds of shifters. Werewolves, for example, could shift into their wolf form fully, or mix some of their wolf features into their human physiology for extended periods if they chose. Dragons, on the other hand, found it hard to stay in their shifted form. It drained them physically, and only a handful of gifted shifters could turn to their full dragon form.
Levi was one of the few, and so was Adebayo. However, Levi could stay shifted for the longest, giving him the most durability and making him one of the most powerful dragons. It was the reason he had become the leader of the pack—no one could challenge his power.
“Why do I have to?” the man asked.
“Because if you don’t—” Garret, a young member of the pack walked out from behind Levi and delivered a powerful blow to the jaw of the rogue, drawing blood instantly. “—you won’t have a jaw to hold that smug smile of yours again.”
The man spat and turned back to Garret, smiling from ear to ear, giggling. “Crazy to think that…even if you took my jaw off my face, I’d still look a whole lot better than your ugly mug.”
Garret flared up and drove a knee into the chest of the man, followed by another blow. He pulled back to attack again, but Levi caught his hand. “Stop. This isn’t helping.”
“He’s not talking,” Garret replied, fuming.
Levi could feel the heat emanating off the young man. While Garret could shift for small amounts of time, he also knew how to control fire, and was the best at it. Every dragon shifter could do it to a certain extent, but Garret’s fire was refined—compared to the explosive blast that Levi managed from time to time. The fact that Garret was a pyro also made the shifter a literal hothead, and he was incredibly stubborn.
“Breaking his jaw isn’t going to help him talk,” Levi replied.