The bear-monkey-people things burst from the forest. I didn’t so much see as hear their massive bulk hit the ground. They didn’t sound as if they were as agile on the sand, there were many thumps and noises of collisions echoing toward us. Braxton was practically flying along the beach, his strength lifting me to keep pace.

“I’m going to shift,” he said. I could hear him clearly, despite our rapid trajectory. No wind, the land was eerily calm.

And that was why Braxton was running and not fighting, he was trying to gain enough space between us and our pursuers to shift. Normally my dragon quad never ran from a fight, it wasn’t in his nature, but his priority was protecting me. He flung me forward before grinding to a halt, covering my flank. I just barely stayed on my feet, and spun away from the water line, turning to find Braxton had shed his jeans and was about to shift into his dragon.

I forced myself not to stare at the double perfection of Braxton ass. His perfect, sun kissed, tightly muscled … shit.

The horror coming at us from the trees helped to cool the raging torrent of my hormones. Twenty of the beasts – did they call for a freaking family reunion or something? – were galloping across the sand. I couldn’t see any wings on their mishmash of features, so we might have flight as an advantage. I felt the pull as Braxton gathered his energy – strong, almost visible in waves around him.

He never even had to bend forward or drop to all fours. His shift was so fast that one moment he stood six and half feet of muscled male and the next he was fifteen feet tall of powerful dragon. His black and blue scales glistened under the sunless green sky.

The creatures must have had at least half a brain. As Braxton tilted back his snout filled with razor sharp teeth and roared to the sky, they skidded to a halt. About fifty yards separated us from them, just enough distance that they were safe from Braxton’s flames which would strip the flesh from their bodies in seconds.

I edged myself closer to the dragon’s tail; somehow I knew he wanted me as close as possible. A thump sounded behind us. I spun around and my heart dropped, pretty much ending up at my feet.

Crap, shit, ass.

“Brax!” I shouted, already sprinting, and in about five agile steps I was moving along the thickly scaled tail and up onto his broad back.

The dragon snorted but didn’t eat me, so he wasn’t taken by surprise. Maybe he’d also seen the creatures which were dragging themselves from the water. Not only were we facing mutant bear-monkeys, but behind us came the serpents – shaped like water dragons, but on a dinosaur scale, and there were literally hundreds of them.