Draygon Frost | Book 1 | ✔️

Chapter Eight

Tents wedged between two hills circled a fire at their center. Women mingled in small groups, oblivious to Siobhan's presence. Though it wouldn't be for long, the wind had already started to shift and it was a matter of time before it carried her scent down into the camp. Their sense of smell was far greater than hers. She laid her staff across her lap, keeping her grip tight, and directed Nyka toward the camp.

A growl rose in the brush around her before a shifted lioness emerged from where she lay concealed. She followed Siobhan's trot toward the fire. Goddess lioness shifters stank. It took all Siobhan's will power not to cover her nose, an action that would offend the entire pride. The shifters in human form joined in the growls of the lionesses following her; they stopped their work and stood. Claws stretched from their fingers as they watched Siobhan, fangs ready to rip a hole in her neck if given a chance.

Wren hung from a spit, tied by his arms and feet around the wood. A rag stuffed in his mouth kept him from screaming when he caught sight of her. The fool shook against his post, but it wouldn't budge.

"What are you doing here, Ice Fang?" a lioness asked. She held a blade damp with what Siobhan suspected was blood. Droplets sprinkled on her bare feet, staining them red.

Siobhan straightened in the saddle, but did nothing to move her staff or provoke the lionesses. Neither side would attack without cause, and Siobhan was badly outnumbered. "You have something that belongs to me."

The lioness snorted and looked to Wren. "Him? We found him wandering the great tear in the earth."

"Well, he belongs to me and I'd like to have him back."

The lioness growled and licked the back of her hand. Her dark skin glowed in the orange flame of the fire. White tattoo stripes circling her arms glittered in the light, as did the signs of the tribal claw mark tattoo all lionesses had on the back of their shaved head. That tattoo symbolized the pride they came from, but Siobhan could only see the claws that wrapped around to the lionesses forehead.

Dark purple rippled with the near black of the clouds. Shadows dominated the trampled grass in the lioness camp. Siobhan hoped to diffuse the situation before they had only fire light to see by. Though her night vision was strong, it paled in comparison to the shifters. If there was to be a fight, Siobhan needed it to happen sooner than later to stand a chance.

"He belongs to us now, Ice Fang," the shifter snarled.

Siobhan ejected the blades from her staff and lowered it to her side. "Then it seems we're at an impasse for I'm not leaving without him."

The lioness smiled as her sisters surrounding Siobhan shifted. Bones shattered as their bodies twisted and mutilated into the forms of the golden-furred lionesses. The sound made Siobhan's stomach crawl. In her life, she'd seen a shifter contort and break into their inner beast multiple times, it didn't make the sound any less disgusting. She once asked a wolf shifter how it felt to turn. He described it as having his body broken and pulled by stampeding horses while simultaneously being stabbed with a hot branding iron.

Siobhan went from a mix of humans and lionesses swarming her, to nothing but the rabid beasts eyeing their new prey. Only children, cowering by the tents and watching from a far, remained unchanged. A tremble coiled through her, but she straightened her shoulders and ignored the fear. Yet again, she found herself in a hornets nest because of Wren.

"Last chance, Ice Fang."

Nyka pranced under the weight of Siobhan, the other horses whined along with her. They must've sensed the hunger in their fellow animals. Growls filled the air, mixing with the occasional hiss. Siobhan dismounted Nyka and spun her staff. The growls rolled in unison, deepening as she stepped toward the un-shifted lioness. When she was close enough the smell of the shifter might make her pass out, she stopped.