Rune agreed with the red dragon shifter. “We were crystal fucking clear what was going down here,” he said. “We split up the group to hold both mountains if we had to. That was communicated.”
“But that wasn’t the plan,” someone else called out.
“Neither was being caught in a trap and having to fight our way out,” Rune countered. “Too fucking bad.”
“All we can do is move forward from where we are,” Deep said, the ever-steady voice of reason.
“If you don’t want to stay,” Finn said, “now’s the time to get out.”
Rune tried not to show his reaction to that. They needed numbers if they were going to hold this place.
“What do we do with our families? Our communities?” Another man called out. He, at least, didn’t sound like a whiny coward. His tone of voice, the solid set to his stance, told Rune this was a question voiced with a view to finding a solution everyone could live with. “One of those men we fought saw me. He could identify me and track me back to my people.”
This, Rune knew exactly how to deal with. “We have one of three options. First, we can leave your people where they are but cut off all communications. This gives them plausible deniability that they weren’t part of this and keeps them on familiar territory.”
“But?” the man asked. A black dragon, like him. Rune nodded an acknowledgement of that fact.
“But that leaves your people exposed, and they could possibly be taken and used as leverage against us. Held hostage, tortured, that kind of thing.”
“Shit,” someone muttered.
Yeah. That was exactly why he’d been hoping Plan A would work.
“Option two?” the black dragon prompted.
“Option two, you leave here, get to your people. Then you take your family, or your entire community, and you run and hide. I have several spots of varying size I am happy to share.”
Finn’s head might as well have been on a swivel he whipped it so hard to stare at Rune. “You’d give up your secrets?”
Rune shrugged. “I kept them to keep people safe, have places to hide them. That’s what I’d still be doing.”
With all the mates he’d secreted away now ensconced with the Blue King and being protected by the phoenixes, he didn’t need these secrets for himself. Not right now, at least.
No one said more, though several men shifted on their feet. He didn’t blame them.
“And option three,” he continued. “Bring your people here or to our mountain in California. We’ll have to double up and share living space. Resources like food and water are probably going to be a logistical nightmare, and you’ll possibly be putting them directly in the line of attack. That said, I was always taught that a mountain is the safest place a dragon can be.”
Deep clapped a hand on his shoulder, a sign of thanks and quiet support. Rune tried to hide the silent inhale he took. It had been a long time since his old friend had done that.
“Talk amongst yourselves,” Deep said. “Decide what is best for you. You have an hour.”
“Come see me if you need a place to hide,” Rune said. “I won’t give out the same location twice and no one will know what I tell you individually.”
The skin across his neck prickled, and his dragon sat up, coming out of an almighty sulk and suddenly alert.
The quiet in the room followed, but Rune already knew. Hadyn was here.
Slowly he turned to find her standing at the entrance, Chaghan and Qara on either side. Before he’d even thought to move, he was across the room wrapping his arms around her, breathing her in. Fuck, he’d never felt fear like that before, and the relief was almost worse.
Fuck that he was having to do this in front of her parents—whose stares he could feel drilling into him—and everyone else. He could deal with awkward. Right now, he and his dragon both needed to feel her alive. For the first time since he’d known she’d been taken, he could breathe. So could his dragon, and they inhaled long and hard.
“I’m sorry,” he said into her neck.
“Can’t breathe,” she squeaked back.
He loosened up, pulling back only enough to look her in the eyes. “I’m sorry,” he said again.
“Stop that,” she said.
“I was supposed to protect—”
“Shhh… I’m fine.”
Was she, though? “Your head?”
A wince. “Improving quickly, thanks to Qara’s blood.”
That was something at least. “You wouldn’t wake up.” Both he and his dragon were still trying to get over that.”
“I just needed a second to recover…” She waved a hand in the air, and a spark manifested out of nowhere. Bright and floating, it leapt from her fingertips, jumping to the stiff-backed scrolling sofa. Flame immediately lit the thing up.
“Oh my gods,” she jumped away from him.
Vaguely aware of others in the room tensing or moving toward them, Rune stopped them all with a raised hand.
Suddenly, the tiny flames sucked toward him as though he was a black hole, drawing them into his body. He absorbed the fire into his skin through sheer will alone until the fire was all gone. All that was left behind was a small, charred spot on the rock floor and a lingering scent of smoke in the air, heavier than what a dragon shifter gave off.
“That’s a cool trick,” she said, wide-eyed.
He shrugged.
“Was that an enforcer thing?” she asked and flicked a glance over his shoulder, probably at one of his old teammates for confirmation.
But Rune was the one who answered. “Yes. We’re all trained to do it. Helps with bigger fires.”
“I should think so.”
She raised laughing eyes to his, but sobered when she found him staring back, unamused. Mostly because he was losing his shit all over again. Had her injuries triggered this? Or something else? If that fucker had put his fire in her… “You told me that you controlled your dragon sign.”
“Usually I do.” She held up her hand, studying her fingertips as if an answer could be found there. Then a glance toward her parents who were at least giving them some privacy for this by staying back. “Stressful situations have always tended to set it off.”
He grunted. Was she calling him a stressful situation? Or being knocked out? Or something worse?
She must’ve caught the concern lancing through him because she lifted a hand to his face. “He didn’t do anything beyond knock me out. Stop blaming yourself.”