The way she viewed color was different in this form, but with her night vision she had vivid clarity of heat signatures. And she could see at least a dozen beings that must be shifters—vampires had a different type of signature—clustered together under what looked like a netting.

  In the daytime, it would likely be a camouflage that blended with the trees.

  The moonlight was on her side tonight at least, the near-full moon unencumbered by clouds.

  She shifted upward, and as she crested the current mountain was greeted with a lot more light from the next one. A hotel jutted out from near the top, and she could see a small town below, little buildings clustered together in various formations.

  As she angled lower, she heard it. Wings flapping.

  Staying alert, she glided, wanting to be as quiet as possible.

  A dragon with golden yellow scales suddenly burst up from the stream that cut through the town, as if it had been drinking from it. She tensed, readying for battle, but the dragon didn’t seem to sense her, didn’t fly in Juniper’s direction.

  It flew higher and higher before it began a lazy glide, circling around the whole area. So it was part of the security of this region. Knowing dragons were involved with this operation pissed her off to no end.

  She stayed low, wanting to remain out of the path of the dragon above so it wouldn’t catch her scent. After she finished scanning the town below, and seeing only vampire signatures and no humans, she turned around.

  But made sure to keep an eye on her back. The dragon seemed to only surveil the township area below. But he could be on a schedule and could definitely be working with others. Likely was.

  She hoped Griffin had fared better than her on the ground. They knew where they were supposed to drop off the trucks, but now that she’d seen a dragon, the playing field had changed. They would have to keep some of them in the air to fight however many dragons while the rest stayed on the ground and took out the vampires.

  Then they needed to figure out who the hell was in charge, to cut off the head of this beast once and for all.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  “There are dragon traps in place,” Starlena said the moment she shifted to human form.

  “What do you mean?” Juniper asked. She’d landed only five minutes ago back at their very temporary home base to find that Griff still hadn’t returned.

  “Sharp wiring throughout clusters of trees. I’ve seen it before. It’s spelled, made from demonfire. It’ll do serious damage to our wings.”

  “That’s what that was,” Ren said, his expression dark. “Was it the glowing webbing?” he asked as he looked at Starlena.

  She nodded, her expression mirroring Ren’s.

  “So there are vampires, dragons and potentially demons at play here.” Juniper didn’t like any of this.

  “Not necessarily demons. They could have simply taken the fire from a Hell realm gate and harnessed it with magic.”

  “That doesn’t sound simple,” Hyacinth said. “And vampires working with fire? That’s… My people don’t like fire.”

  “It’s not simple. It takes very specific skills and knowledge,” Starlena said, her expression shifting slightly, as if she was racking her brain.

  “You know who’s behind this?” Zephyr was right next to Juniper, had been from the moment she’d touched down minutes ago.

  “No. But the skill set to harness demonfire is something only an ancient like myself can do. So either an ancient is involved or they’re working with demons. My money is on an ancient because demons don’t play well with others.”

  “So what’s the plan?” Ren asked, looking at Juniper.

  Finn’s wolves were behind them, watching her expectantly as well. And she wished she had the answer. They needed to bring down this group but this was sounding like it was bigger than she’d originally thought.

  “We can recon the rest of the night, then lie low tomorrow, watch them some more and attack.” But she didn’t want to wait. They were in a strange territory and the longer they were out in the open, relatively speaking, the bigger the chance they’d lose the element of surprise. “But the drop-off time is later tonight.”

  Griffin appeared as if out of nowhere, fully clothed. Juniper still found herself impressed by how quiet her wolf packmate was, by any standards. “We should hit them before the sun comes up,” he said immediately.

  Everyone looked at him then. Considering her packmate chose his words carefully, always, Juniper was going to listen. “What did you see?”

  “The drop-off point for the trucks is in a huge cave right in the side of a mountain. And it leads to a Hell realm gate. There’s no doubt where they’re taking the humans. I didn’t spot humans anywhere in this territory. Did anyone else?” He looked around, got all negative answers and continued. “I heard enough conversations that they’re worried about the boat delivery of the humans in Finn’s territory. They don’t know we saved them, but they haven’t heard from the boat’s captain and that had been their contact. And one of the vampires said that their dragon brethren seem tenser than normal, that they lost two of their people but don’t know how or when.”

  That would be the dragons they’d killed over the Gulf waters. When they’d died, their clan would have felt the severing of their lives. Shit.

  “The mood in that cave is worried. But they’re not on high alert—yet. It’s coming, however. If we’re going to strike, I say we do it now, rescue any humans trapped and get out of here.”

  “The only problem with that is getting out of the Hell realm.” That was always a tricky thing. She was a dragon, and her kind’s blood had been used to open and shut Hell realm doors for ages. But going into one and then actually leaving…sometimes it didn’t work out the way you planned. Zephyr getting trapped in one was a prime example of that. She couldn’t risk her people being trapped somewhere.

  “We don’t need to cross the barrier of the door. I can pull the humans out with my magic,” Starlena said.

  Juniper blinked. “How?” She’d never heard of anything like that.

  She patted her blades once as she said, “Nova magic.” Her words were so matter-of-fact, as if it was a simple thing.

  Juniper had questions but wouldn’t ask them in front of the others. Still… “You’re sure?”

  “Yes.”

  Juniper looked out at the others as she digested everything, as she went over everything they’d gleaned. “They’ve got dragons on their side and they have the advantage of being on their home turf. But I think we should attack tonight, free the humans, then close the gate. We’ll go in covertly, on the ground, attack the cave first.” Since getting everyone out of that Hell realm was the main objective, it made sense to slip into there first. “What do you think our odds are of getting in undetected?” she asked Griffin.

  He paused once before he said, “If we go in on foot, I think good. I know we came in with the trucks, but I don’t think we need them. They might even hurt our attempts to infiltrate. There were a good twenty vampires inside that cave. Mostly just dicking around, but they’re acting as security of that Hell realm gate. I say we infiltrate using our natural abilities and kill everyone in sight before they have a chance to alert anyone else.”

  Sometimes the simplest plan was best. “I like it. We’ll head out in ten.” Juniper glanced back at the trucks, frowned.

  “We can hide the trucks off a nearby road right off the highway,” Zephyr said, clearly reading her expression. “When I was flying, I spotted a place we could drive into and leave them. It won’t be a perfect hiding spot but someone would have to be looking for them.”

  “Do it, then.” She nodded once at him and he ordered two of the wolves to start up the trucks. “And if anyone wants to make calls before the mission, now’s the time.” She knew Griff liked to call his dad before a mission and she wasn’t surprised when Ren and Hyacinth both pulled out their phones—Ren likely to call the sweet human Grace, and Hyacinth to call the Magic Man.

  Even Starlena stepped away, pulling out her cell phone.

  Juniper pulled out her own phone and called her parents. She needed to contact them anyway—needed to tell them about her biological family. But mainly she just wanted to tell her mom and dad that she loved them. That she appreciated them.

  Stepping away from everyone, she called her mom first. It rang and rang so she called her dad next. No answer either but she decided to leave a voicemail, something she almost never did. “Hey Dad, just checking in with you guys. I called both of you and no answer so you must be really busy.”

  She smiled at that. They had to be ridiculously busy not to answer her. Because it could be four in the morning and if she called, they picked up. But they were healers and there had recently been a few pregnancies in the pack. She had a feeling they were dealing with all the preggos right now. Or more likely, the mates of the pregnant wolves.

  “Been busy with work,” she continued. “But I should have called you back sooner. I love you both more than you’ll ever know. And I’ll be coming home as soon as I can.” She hung up then, not trusting her voice. Then she sent a text to Finn, letting him know what they planned and that Vega was safe. After he responded, she texted August, let him know they’d be going dark. She received a thumbs-up emoji.

  Which made her smile. Their boss trusted them to get the job done.

  She turned off her cell. They all would before heading out. As she shoved her phone into her duffel bag, she glanced up at Zephyr’s approach.

  He strode across the parking lot, all long, muscular jean-clad legs and barely restrained energy buzzing through him.

  The male was walking sex and raw power. And she could still feel his fingers thrusting inside her. “You call your brothers?” she asked, shoving those thoughts aside.

  He nodded, his gaze straying to her mouth. “Yeah. Avery told us all to be safe,” he said, his expression softening.

  Which just made Juniper’s heart flip over. The male should smile more often. And goddess, she wanted all of his smiles. She stepped closer to him, moving on pure instinct, and wrapped her arms around his middle. She knew she’d taken him off guard, but he didn’t pause, simply wrapped her in a tight embrace.

  She melted into him, just savoring being held by him. She’d never fully trusted anyone other than her parents and crew. Certainly not a lover. This thing with Zephyr that she was afraid to define or even try to put into words had woken her up inside. And she didn’t want to go back to sleep.

  “As soon as this is over, you’re mine for a few days.” He inhaled deeply and she knew he was straight up smelling her.

  She liked it way too much. “Just a few?” she murmured against his chest. Only a week ago she’d have blown off the thought of a few days. A week ago, she’d been a dumbass.

  “How about forever?” His voice was a low growl, hitting her in all the right places.

  That should terrify her. And okay, it totally did. They were dragons. If they mated, they were linked forever, quite literally, till death do they part. But she didn’t want to live half a life anymore. She didn’t want to be so afraid of her own happiness that she missed out on something amazing, life changing. She wanted to hold on to him tight, her baggage be damned. “I’m still a mess sometimes. That hasn’t changed.” She kept her face buried in his chest. This was exactly where she wanted to be. And for the next two minutes, before they had to fly into danger, she was going to stay right here.

  His grip tightened. “You’re perfection.”

  “I can be cranky in the mornings,” she murmured, keeping her voice low enough for only him.

  “I know a good way to put a smile on your face.” His low-spoken words were wicked and sliced right through to her core.

  Swallowing hard, because she couldn’t afford to let her emotions overtake her, she leaned back to look up at him. She didn’t know what to say in that moment. Not with words. So she kissed him, lightly, brushed her mouth over his in a claiming. It might be light, but she was doing it in front of everyone. She was making a statement now. He was hers.

  Though she hated to pull back, she had to. It was almost go time.

  Clearing her throat, she stepped back and found everyone had returned from making their phone calls.

  “Thurman says we’ve got this in the bag,” Hyacinth said as she joined the group, a grin on her face. “Let’s go kick some ass.”

  Juniper had known her long enough to know that Thurman hadn’t actually said that, but the wolves in the group nodded, their expressions feral and determined as they readied for battle.

  She raised an eyebrow at Hyacinth, who simply gave a short shrug. So Thurman hadn’t said that, but whatever, they did have this handled.

  “Let’s go over the plan of attack. We’ll be working in tandem and as quietly as possible.” She ran over the plan once, then took input from all the scouts, tweaked it.

  Then they went over it again.

  Adrenaline jagged through her. She was ready for this and she was glad Zephyr would have her back. Though she would worry about him, she knew he was one of the most capable males she’d ever met.

  Capable, warm, giving, and so damn patient he might as well be a unicorn.

  And she wasn’t going to let him go.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Zephyr crept toward the entrance of the cave opening, his camouflage in place. They’d had to trek up half the mountain and Griff had been spot-on; this place was the entrance to a Hell realm gate. The glow that emanated from the mouth of it had been visible from about a hundred yards down.

  And it was clear the cave opening had been created recently, which made sense. Someone supernatural must have blown the mountain open to get to it. Hell realm gates were usually difficult or impossible to get to.

  Despite the name “Hell realm,” some of them were paradises. If he had to guess, this one might be too, considering the trouble whoever was running this show was putting into trafficking so many humans into it.

  Across the cave mouth, a rock was tapped on the ground twice.

  Juniper’s signal. She and Starlena were moving in from the west of the cave mouth, while he was moving in from the east. Since they were the only ones who had natural camouflage, they were infiltrating the cave. The others were scattered down the mountainside, hiding and waiting—and stopping any potential problems.

  They needed to keep things as quiet as possible while they rescued the humans. At least long enough to get them out of the realm. But he knew better than most that things didn’t always work out as planned.

  Following her signal, he moved inside, watching for traps. The opening was about thirty feet high with a long string of lights hung up along the ceiling. Given the natural blue glow coming from deeper inside, he didn’t think anyone actually needed the illumination.

  Voices trailed from deeper inside and he paused as a shout went up. There was also a consistent pat, pat, pat sound that would stop, then start up again.

  “Time to pay up!”

  “Man, fuck you,” a voice said jokingly.

  So he and the others hadn’t been seen. Zephyr continued on and nearly rolled his eyes at what he saw. The cave opened up into a wide space with twenty-one vampires in it. Two were playing ping-pong—that was the source of the shouting and pat sounds.

  Five were playing a card game around a table.

  Three were playing some sort of electronic handheld game.

  Seven were lifting weights in an area that had been designated as a gym. Vampires were naturally strong, but it was clear the males in the workout area were practicing their agility. So those were the first he’d attack.

  Four were in front of the Hell realm gate—which was a glowing ball of energy. And they looked bored out of their minds.

  There’d been no guards by the cave mouth, which made him wonder about their security.

  Moving quietly, he edged closer to the vampires working out. Two were doing plyometric exercises, jumping over stacked up boulders.

  “That’s impressive,” one said to the other.

  “Nah. What would be impressive would be if we actually got some company in here once in a while,” one grumbled.

  From the way he said company, Zephyr figured he meant of the female variety. He was going to kill that one first.

  “It’s bullshit,” another agreed. “The old ones are keeping the humans for themselves.”

  “That sounds like treason,” one by the gate called out. “Stop discussing this now. I will not be part of this conversation.”

  “Forget you!” the one who’d just jumped over the boulders snapped, his fangs dropping as he took a menacing step toward the other male. “You guard that thing but you’ve never been inside. None of us have! These arrogant dragons keep everything for themselves, treat us like servants.”

  “We just need to have patience,” the male responded, turning his nose slightly up. “We’ll earn the right to enter.”

  “Or we can just go inside, take what we want,” the beefed-up one continued.

  “Or you could just die,” a familiar female voice purred. Juniper.

  That was the signal. Still in human form, Zephyr released a stream of fire directly at the vampires working out.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw both Starlena and Juniper drop their camouflage as they whipped their chains out, slicing off the heads of the video game and card playing vamps in quick succession.

  Screams filled the cavern as the three of them attacked with savagery, setting vampires on fire or slashing them down with their chains.

  He ashed the vampires in the makeshift gym in seconds, their screams fading as quickly as they started. Then he turned on the others but Juniper was faster, her chains reaching out farther than he’d thought possible, whipping straight through the ping-pong players.

  He focused on the guards at the realm entrance who pulled out actual guns, started shooting wildly.

  Shit. They couldn’t afford a lot of noise.

  He avoided the wild bullets as he raced at the vamps with supernatural speed, unleashed his fire in a sharp arc, burning them to nothing.