“There are only two unnatural things in this room,” I said, “and neither of them are inside that dome.” I was determined not to reveal an ounce of my worry or fear but the reality was, the fruit twins were complete and total unknown elements and they did actually scare me a little. Loose cannons are always tough to judge, and I already knew they were slimy and scheming. I preferred foes who came straight at me, I wasn’t great with underhanded. I wished we could have just killed them, but since murder was frowned upon in the supernatural world and I still had a trial pending in Stratford, I probably should find a more diplomatic solution.

Lemon took over the bullshit advice. “You will see tomorrow, there are greater things awaiting you than being mated to a dragon shifter. After we retrieve the weapon from Krakov, you will have little loyalty to those abominations.”

Louis and Jonathon both reached out at the same time and captured my arms. I looked down to find my hands partially shifted into claws and my knees bent.

“Let me go!” I snarled, my voice deeper as my anger took control. “Let. Me. Go!”

My voice was suddenly overpowered by another, a roar much louder, darker, and spine chillingly scary. Braxton had moved forward in the protective dome, standing as close as he could to the edge without touching the white beams of energy – both hands clenched at his side, eyes locked on me like a heat-seeking-missile.

Air whooshed around me as Louis and Jonathon stepped away, both of them holding their arms aloft.

“No one is touching her, Braxton.” Jonathon was using his calm-down-crazy-shifter voice.

The moment I realized that Braxton’s reaction was about me, slivers of cool started to thread through my previous rage. Now, I couldn’t focus on anything but my mate; his expression was terrifying me to my very core. And apparently I wasn’t the only one. Hearing a scuffle, I whipped back around and all I saw of the terrible trio was the ass ends of them as they scurried into the elevator.

Weak. I’d scented weakness on them from the start, and this fatal flaw was why they actually worried me. They would not come at me with honor, they would lie, cheat, and manipulate to get what they wanted. My biggest disappointment was Mischa.

She was a Lebron. Wolves do not cower in the shadow of others. We’re a pack, we stick together, we don’t lie with snakes. You lie with snakes, you either become a snake, or you get bitten and die.